Ino's Lament
by KibaCanLickMe
Summary: Ino always thought she and Shikamaru would get married. But he's marrying someone else. Before she can attend the wedding she has a big mission with a partner she hates. Can she handle it? Will she fall apart or find a new love? InoXKiba Lemon
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Naruto, which is too bad, because then I'd be rich and my room would be full of dancing little blue men.

Ino couldn't be more miserable. Not only had she been without a boyfriend for over a year and a half, which had been bothering her way more then she wanted to admit, but now she had agreed to be the maid of honor at the wedding of the man she had always thought she would marry. On top of that she had just been assigned a big mission a week before the wedding, so she was sure to be battered and bruised just in time for the celebration. Her bruises always started out a pale yellow jaundice color and gradually turned that beautiful dark purple eggplant about four days later. So, if she left for her mission on Thursday as planned, and returned on Tuesday, on Saturday, the wedding day, she'd be eggplant, which was going to look lovely against the sunshine yellow dress Temari had chosen.

In an attempt to forget her misfortune Ino had picked up a few shifts at her mothers flower shop, but that had turned out to be a bust. She'd had only one customer all day, and all he'd wanted were a dozen red roses. It had taken only ten minutes total to find out what he wanted, arrange the roses, wrap them up, and ring him up at the register. Within those ten minutes the man had managed to gush about his love so thoroughly that Ino had wanted to hit him over the head with his roses before he left. She had of course held her temper and smiled at him the whole time, her mother would have her head if she was rude to a customer, but she'd really wanted to hit him just the same.

All day, other then those ten minutes, she had brooded. It was all that was on her mind. She couldn't even believe Shikamaru had asked her. That mus have been why she accepted, she'd been so shocked to hear his voice on the other end of the phone when he'd called three weeks ago that she'd been in a daze. All day she had replayed the phone call over and over again in her mind.

She had been expecting a call from Sakura, so she'd answered the phone using a goofy greeting designed to annoy Sakura.

"Hello, this is Ino, sexiest konoichi in Konoha, what can I do for you?"

"You still haven't changed a bit." She'd almost choked at the sound of his voice, and had immediately felt like the stupid 16 year old girl she'd been 4 years ago when she had last seen him.

"Shikamaru? I wasn't expecting you to call. I thought it was Sakura."

"Like I said, you still haven't changed. Everything you're ever done has been designed to piss off Sakura." His lazy tone had held a hint of amusement.

"No I have not, Sakura is my best friend. I don't' do things to piss her off," she'd lied, and they had both known it.

"Whatever, Ino. I don't want to argue with you, its far too troublesome."

"Well what did you call for then?"

"I have something I want to tell you, and something I want to ask…."

Her heart had fluttered, for a second she thought he was going to say he was coming home, coming back to Konoha, coming back to her. And that he wanted them to give it another try. She knew she'd been a fool four years ago but maybe it had been long enough, maybe he'd forgiven her. And then reality hit her, like a ton of bricks to the head.

"I'm getting married, and I'd really like you to be part of the wedding. A big part actually. Would you be our maid of honor?"

Ummm…..congratulations, but ummm isn't the maid of honor usually the brides best friend?"

"Eh…" he'd kinda chuckled. "Umm…the thing is, Temari-chan doesn't have any girl friends. Turns out most of the girls here in Suna think she's stuck up and a bitch ("That's because she is," Ino thought to herself.) so she's asked Sakura and Hinata to be in the wedding. But with Gaara, Kankuro, and Choji being in it we need three girls, and since she's insisting on having Gaara as the best man, I told her I wanted you to be the maid of honor."

"I don't know, Shikamaru," she'd said. "It might be a little awkward."

"Don't be silly, Ino. You've been one of my best friends since I was five years old and I've known you even longer then that. You were my teammate for nine years and you've saved my life countless times. I could never feel awkward around you."

"I didn't mean you, Shika."

"You mean Temari?" he asked incredulously. "She knows about our relationship, but she also knows what we had was different. That it was just puppy love. Temari is my world, Ino, and she knows it. I've never been happier and so in love. I tell her that all the time. So there's no way she would feel awkward. Plus she has to be the most secure woman I've ever met. She'd never be so unsure of herself that she'd think you could steal me away. It'll be fine Ino. Just please say you'll do it."

In the end she had agreed. She had tried a few more times to argue her way out of it, but it was a lost cause, she should have known better. Shikamaru hadn't been sent to help Suna as their top strategist for nothing, he'd shot down all her attempts in mere seconds.

"Okay Shikamaru, I'll do it. I'll be your maid of honor. Just promise me I won't have to wear a pink dress." She'd hear the words come out of her mouth and instantly wished she could take them back, but she couldn't, it was done.

"Thanks, Ino. This is going to be so great, all the people I love are going to be part of this now. I'm so excited. Kurenai is even brining little Azuma to be the ring barer. We don't have a flower girl, but that's okay because Temari doesn't like flowers that much anyway. She's going to be so happy, Ino. She didn't think you would say yes, and she didn't want to ask Sakura or HInata because they aren't really that close, but I knew you would do it."

"It's going to be great Shika-kun," she lied, this time only she knew it though. "I can't wait to see you both."

They said goodbye and Shikamaru had no idea Ino felt like throwing up. "Temari is my world." It was those four words. Those four words that had done the damage. She hadn't seen him in four years but she'd always thought about him. Thought about how one day he would come home and they would be together. She'd always thought about him. Those four words had let her know he hadn't been thinking about her.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day at the flower shop wasn't any busier and once again Ino found herself sulking around and wishing she could get sick so she could skip both her mission and the wedding. She'd just found out that Shino had been assigned to a more urgent mission than the one they were to be leaving for on Thursday and the only other tracker left in the village was Inuzuka Kiba. Ino couldn't stand him. He was such a loud mouth, pig headed idiot that it completely overshadowed the fact that he was extremely good looking. For a while Ino had acquired a major crush on him, but his big mouth and smart ass behavior had completely turned her off when she got to know him better. Chiseled abs meant nothing when they were attached to an ignorant cocky asshole. Before they'd gone on that mission Ino had planned to seduce him and have her way with him, but they had spent the whole time arguing and fighting. Their teamwork had been terrible, almost non-existant, and they had failed the mission. Tsunade had never put them together on a team again. That had been three years ago, and the Hokage had still been hesitant to pair them up again, but there had been no one else.

Ino silently cursed her luck. Maybe she could just ignore him the whole mission. Besides, she had worse things to deal with when they returned. It was already Tuesday and she had no date for the wedding. She had to find one by tomorrow or she wouldn't have one at all, because when she got back she had to leave immediately for Suna after giving her report to the Hokage. There was absolutely no way she could go to this wedding alone, and yet she didn't see any way out of it. Choji had already asked Ayame, the girl from the Ichiraku Ramen stand, Naruto was bringing Shizune because she wanted to see her lazy chunin intern get married, Neji and Tenten had been together for three years, they'd probably be getting married themselves soon, Sai had said he would go but then he'd been called back to Root and wasn't coming back for months, she refused to ask Rock Lee, and Shino had been her last hope, now he'd be on this mission for three weeks past the wedding.

"My life couldn't suck anymore then it does right now," she thought aloud. "And its all my own fault."

It was her own fault she and Shikamaru had broken up. They had been fifteen when they started dating. On his sixteenth birthday she'd given him her virginity for his present. They had made love in his family's forest underneath the stars, and afterward he'd brought her to see the Nara deer. They'd eaten right out of her hand and she'd seen him smiling up at her looking so peaceful. Later he told her he thought they would be together forever. And maybe they would have, but five months later Ino started taking him for granted. Once they had sex it changed their relationship. He no longer argued with her ever, and he went out of his way to make sure she was always happy, he treated her like a princess, once he'd even made the four day trip to Wave country because he'd heard there was a cream made from pearls that kept the skin from wrinkling and he knew Ino worried about that stuff. She had loved the cream, but she'd started to lose interest in the man that brought it to her. Then Sasuke had come back. One wink from the sexy Uchiha was all it had taken.

She had told Shikamaru that they needed a break. He'd been devastated. He even cried. He didn't understand, as a matter of fact, nobody understood, not Choji, not Sakura, not her dad, not even her mother who'd always said he was lazy and good for nothing. But Ino had been sixteen, young and foolish, and Shikamaru had put her so high on a pedestal that she'd come to believe she deserved better. She'd been so stupid.

Shikamaru left on assignment to help the Suna strategists find a way to grow crops all year since they had sun all year. He'd succeeded in just five months, but he hadn't come back. It seemed the same sand kunoichi who he'd beaten at the chunin exam, that had rescued him on his mission to save Sasuke, and had come to Konoha to escort him to Suna, had also helped to mend his broken heart. Shikamaru hadn't been back in Konoha since, now he was getting married, and soon he'd be a resident of Suna.

A week after he'd left, Sasuke had taken Ino out. They'd had sex that night. It hadn't been special like she thought it would be, and afterward he'd left without saying a word. They dated for about six months. He was never very sweet, sex with him was always rough, and sometimes left her feeling used. Sasuke was always aloof and she'd come to realize somewhere around the five month mark that he was really in love with Sakura. He was dating Ino because he was afraid to hurt the pink haired konoichi. At six months she'd confronted him about it, and to his credit he'd been honest. They broke up and he finally came clean to Sakura about his feelings. Ino had tried to be happy for her friend but it had been hard, especially when Sakura told her all about their first time together. It had been Sakura's first time and Sasuke had been sweet and kind and gentle with her, nothing like he'd been with Ino. Since then she'd gone on a few dates with Naruto, but he still loved Sakura too. Then she'd dated Genma until she was 18, he'd been older and sweet, but eventually the age difference as too much and she hadn't had a boyfriend since.


	3. Chapter 3

Wednesday at the flower shop Ino had better things on her mind. She was working the morning shift so she could get home with enough time to pack for her mission with the dog boy. She started thinking about where her equipment was, and how she would find it when she got home, when Hyuuga Hinata came through the door, ringing the chimes Ino's mother had hung on the entrance to alert anyone working in the back of a customer's arrival.

"Konichiwa, Ino-san," Hinata greeted her with a shy smile.

"Konichiwa, Hinata-san. How are you doing?"

"I'm okay, Ino. But I am a little worried about the wedding. Naruto told me the reason Temari-san asked me to be in the wedding instead of Tenten is that, apparently Kazekage Gaara is interested in getting to know me. I'm not sure if I'll be able to speak to him knowing he's interested in me. I know I'm being silly but I just get so shy around guys, sometimes I still feel like that stuttering little girl who would faint every time she spoke to Naruto-kun."

Ino laughed, "Oh Hinata, stop it. You haven't feinted in years. Naruto is your best friend, and you never get flustered around any of the guys around here…..oh my gosh! You actually like Gaara!"

Ino was entirely excited. She always liked seeing her friends find love and matchmaking had always been one of her strongest interests. This was just what she needed to get her mind off all the other less pleasant things she had been dwelling on for the last few days.

"Hinata-chan, you are going to talk to him and everything is going to be fine. You aren't going to feint or stutter or do anything you wouldn't want to. I'm sure of it. This is soooo cute!"

"I'm so worried; I haven't felt this nervous in such a long time. The only person who ever gave me butterflies like this was Naruto. Ant I'm so terrified I'm going to embarrass myself. How ridiculous would it be? A grown woman passing out at the feet of the kazekage at his sister's wedding. I would be humiliated, and my father would be furious. The Hyuuga heir can not behave like that. I can't bring shame like that to the family, it would be disastrous."

"Relax; you're not going to pass out. Just pretend he's Naruto, it will be easy and everything will be fine," Ino comforted the scared looking heir.

"Are you kidding? No offense, it would be a good idea, except Gaara is nothing like Naruto. He's serious where Naruto is goofy, he's observant where Naruto is oblivious, polite when Naruto is rude and doesn't know it, and he is calm and cool when Naruto is excitable and hyperactive. There is nothing about them that would let me pretend Gaara is Naruto. When I'm with Naruto he does all the talking. Sometimes I make a short comment but it's always him that continuously babbles on and on. With Gaara I am going to have to talk, and let's face it, that's never been one of my strengths."

"Hinata. Maybe that's a good thing. A guy who wants to hear what you have to say is a great thing. Plus, it sounds more and more like Gaara has a lot of the same habits as Shino, and you've gotten along with Shino for years, you'll be fine." Ino said wistfully. "Don't pass that up. At least give Gaara a chance. Even if you pass out he'll have to catch you. It would be rude to let you fall to the floor. And when you wake up you'll be in the arms of the kazekage looking up into his beautiful green eyes. I almost wish it was me that feinted all the time."

'He does have pretty eyes, doesn't he?" Hinata said dreamily. "You're right; maybe it won't be so bad."

"I told you so. Now what are you doing here in the flower shop?" Ino asked, knowing her friend didn't come all the way into town to talk about her crush on Suna's leader.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Temari called and apparently Shikamaru wanted you to do the flowers for the wedding. Temari seems to think the flowers won't make it on the trip to Suna, that the desert would dry them out. But Shikamaru thinks you'll be offended if they don't' ask you. So she wanted to know if she was right and should just go about getting someone in Suna to do it, since she knew "Shikamaru's lazy ass," hehe, that's what she said, not me, would probably wait too long to call you and she would wind up without any flowers at all."

"That baka, of course I can't carry flowers through the desert and use them for a wedding. Sometimes for such a genius he has no common sense. And she's right, he probably won't call me until I'm about to leave for Suna, and they'll have no flowers for the wedding. Tell her to find somebody else, I will not be offended in the slightest."

"Okay, I'll let her know. See you later Ino-chan," Hinata waved goodbye.

"See you when I get back, Hinata."

"Oh no, Ino. We won't see each other until you get to Suna. We're all going early to help out with the bridal shower and bachelor party. So I'll see you there. Good luck on your mission. Try not to fight with Kiba-kun, he really is a good teammate, I promise."

After Hinata left even the prospect of her friend finding love with the Kazekage couldn't change her bad mood. Now she had to travel all the way to Suna by herself. This was ridiculous. Just when she thought her life couldn't suck any more, boom, she'd been punched in the face again. This had to be it. Ino thought, she just couldn't' take anything else.

Thursday morning Ino's alarm clock woke her up at 4:30 AM, she was meeting Kiba at the gates of Konoha at 6:00. She contemplated smacking the snooze button and sleeping until 5:00, but her vanity won out, as it often did, and she turned it off. She pushed her blankets down, sat up and yawned. She really didn't want to get out of bed. It was still early spring so when she'd gone to bed the night before it had been warm and she'd put her fan in the window to bring in the cooler night air, but this morning the air was damp and cold, and the running fan had brought it all into her bedroom. She dreaded stepping out of the warm cocoon of her bed. She had to though, there was no way she was going to meet that bastard Inuzuka without first showering and doing her hair so it was presentable.

Ino had given up wearing make-up on missions after a particularly messy altercation with a shinobi from the land of waves. He'd done a water jutsu that had completely drenched her. It had done little else though and she defeated him easily, but it had left her with black mascara and eyeliner running down her face. Even waterproof make-up was not made for the konoichi on the go. Choji had teased her about it for weeks and she had never put mascara on again, well at least while she was on a mission. That didn't mean Ino didn't care about her appearance though. She still showered, and shaved her legs, she spent a half hour blow drying and straightening her long blonde hair, and made sure she packed five changes of clothes as well as three sets of sleep wear. Her pack was heavier then she would have preferred, but she refused to give the dog boy any unpleasant smells he could harass her about.

Ino and Kiba's mission would be a pretty long time in the outdoors. They would be going six days in the wilderness with no showers, maybe they would come across a stream or pond, but that was unlikely, and Ino didn't ever feel that she was clean after a bath in a pond anyway. Without numerous sets of clothing to wear she would be rank in a few days, she'd be damned if she'd walk around stinking around the Inuzuka. Ino knew that the Inuzuka's nose picked up every scent. Every dam scent, Hinata said he even could tell when she was ovulating and menstruating. Ino had been astounded and horrified, that was information that should be private. Hinata had tried to reassure her that it was only because she'd been on the same team as Kiba , and had been working together for so long, that he could notice the difference, and he wouldn't be able to notice on anyone else, but Ino had never been sure if that was true. Since then she had avoided him at all costs at those times of the month just to be safe.

After she'd finished getting ready for the mission, Ino strapped on her backpack and headed out of the house. She locked the front door and slid her keys into a pocket in her backpack. Any shinobi would be able to get in with no problems but the security systems that might actually deter a ninja were insanely expensive, and even they couldn't guarantee your possessions would be safe if a shinobi wanted to get in. Really though, there were extremely few break ins in Konoha, most ninja were very close to one another. Even though there were quite a few ninja in Konoha, many times a shinobi team went out and returned minus a comrade or two, sometimes none came back at all, so as a rule ninja tried to live each day like it was their last. This made them all the more close, because when you were out on a mission you spoke to whoever was with you like they were family, if you died at least you would be among friends. The Konoha ninja had turned into a large family, and the rest of the population was too scared to steal from a shinobi, so Ino worried little about her property when she walked through her gate to go meet Kiba.

It was early, and as she walked through town few people were awake. A few shinobi were up training, Ino noticed Rock Lee running laps around the village, he was so damn fast she saw him pass her twice before she'd walked even four blocks, but most of Konoha's citizenry were warm sleeping in their beds. Ino envied them as she trudged through the village and out the front gates.

"You're late, you lazy ass!" Kiba yelled in greeting. "Let's get moving, I need a fresh scent to track, if we travel this slow the whole way we'll never find our target."

Ino rolled her eyes and cursed her luck for the millionth time this week. This was going to be way more difficult then she'd thought. She hadn't been in his presence for even a minute and he'd already pissed her off. Ino closed her eyes and slowly counted to ten. She would not let him get to her this time, there was no way she was failing another mission because of him. In that moment she made a promise to herself, she wouldn't fight with him the whole trip, every insult he threw at her would only strengthen her resolve, she intended to show Tsunade she could work with anyone, even the mongrel Inuzuka.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, its nice to know someone likes this little story. If anyone has any ideas how I can make it better, feel free to suggest, sometimes I'm having a bit of a block.

Oh, and I still don't own Naruto, even though it would be freakin awesome if I did.

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Much to Ino's surprise it was a lot easier not to fight with Kiba this time around. It seemed she wasn't the only one who had matured since their last fiasco of a mission. Despite his original bitching about her snail-like pace, if she remembered correctly he'd said, "Damn it woman, if I was crawling I'd still be moving faster then you. What are you? Part Turtle?" he had sucked it up and reduced his own speed to accommodate her. She couldn't deny she was moving slow though, the inordinately overstuffed rucksack on her back was weighing her down, and she was starting to feel a little silly for bringing it all with her. If she'd been on this mission with Choji or Naruto, so why did she feel the need to impress this mutt-boy? While she was unable to move with her usual swiftness, she did pick up her gait when she noticed him slow to adapt her stride without complaint. She'd be damned if she was going to give him ammunition to rub in her face later when they had to stop for camp.

Leaping from one branch to the next Kiba and Ino delved deeper and deeper into the forest, and Ino suddenly realized she had no idea where they were going or even what their mission was. Kiba had attended the briefing in her stead while she took care of the flower shop for her mother, and he had yet to fill her in. She glanced to the right hoping to catch his eye so she could get him to stop and tell her what the hell they were doing. But Kiba wasn't there. She turned her head further behind her and noticed the Inuzuka had taken a position about five feet behind her, while Akamaru now occupied his master's previous station to her right.

"Ino! Look out!" She heard him yell just as she felt a tree limb smash into her stomach. Since she'd been looking behind her she hadn't noticed the irregularity in her footing and she'd come up short on her jump. Not that it mattered now, she was falling from a height of at least fifty feet, most likely more, and with the wind knocked out of her from the collision with the tree branch, she was in no condition to mold chakra and stop her fall.

"Gatsuuga!" was the last thing she heard before she was grabbed roughly into the spinning vortex of Kiba's jutsu.

"Are you okay?" she heard him ask, as he placed her down, setting her back against one of the trees from which she had just fallen. Her head was swimming, and she couldn't tell if she was reeling from her impact with the tree or the dizzying rotation of Kiba's Gatsuuga. She had no idea how he could perform that in battle without developing vertigo and being killed.

"I'm..I…I'm fine. I think. Thank you," she said, while supporting her head with her hands in an attempt to steady the world. The more she became coherent and regained her composure the more she became embarrassed about her clumsiness. Falling out of a tree was something a genin would do, not the actions of a skilled jounin. Ino felt humiliated, and of course she had done it in front of him. She was sure once he realized she was okay he'd never let her forget it and her face blushed in mortification.

"What the hell were you doing up there Yamanaka? You can't be having any blonde moments when you're up fifty feet in the air," he teased.

"Blonde moments?" she snapped, forgetting her promise not to let him get to her. Her embarrassment was turning to frustration and she started taking it out on him. "I was looking for you! You still haven't told me what our mission is, and then when I go to ask you, you're not there! Instead there's a dog, and as great as he is, Akamaru can't tell me about the mission, and you're behind me. I guess hiding in case there's danger, you scared little bitch!"

Ino's face was flushed, her temper had gotten the best of her and now she found herself yelling at the man who had just seconds earlier saved her from a fate as vulture food. Suddenly she was ashamed of her actions and thought maybe she'd gone too far.

"I'm sorry Kiba. You just saved my life, and here I am screaming at you instead of giving you my gratitude. I'm sorry for yelling and for not being grateful, and thank you so much for catching me."

"Eh… no sweat. Don't worry about it," he shrugged.

"So what is our mission?" she asked. "And what were you doing back there? Are we being followed?"

This time it was Kiba's turn to blush. "Oh nothing, no, we're not being followed. No worries," he answered.

"We're not? Then what were you doing?" she asked again.

"Nothing. Nothing, don't worry about it," he said. "You want to hear about the mission?"

"Yeah, I want to hear about the mission, but tell me what you were doing. Stop being so secretive. We're supposed to be a team. You can't be doing things behind my back, was it a jutsu that you're trying to keep for your own? I won't steal it. Let's act like a team this time Kiba, so we don't fail again. Just tell me what you were doing. Maybe I can help."

"Hmmph…I doubt it," he smirked.

"What the hell does that mean? She felt herself getting angry again, how did he always piss her off? "What were you doing, that's so difficult I can't do it?"

"Man you sound like a broken record," he said, still not responding to her question.

"Just answer the damn question Kiba! Preferably before I lose my temper!"

"Fine! Iwassscheckinoutyerass," he mumbled.

"What? I have no idea what you just said."

"Ugh! I WAS CHECKING OUT YOUR ASS!" he yelled. "Happy now? Now you know."

Ino just stared, she was speechless. That was definitely not what she'd been expecting he'd say, and now she was just shocked and stunned.

"Well what do you expect?" Kiba started rambling on in justification due to the awkwardness of her silence. "Going around in short skirt like that, seriously it's like the size of a washcloth Ino. It's impossible not to look, especially when it's just right there in front of me, looking all round and cute. You can't be mad; it's totally your own fault."

"You're a pig," she said, making sure she sounded pissed. Secretly she was pleased, at least someone had noticed all the hard work she'd put into her body, even if it was the Inuzuka.

"You're wrong!" he yelled after her. "I'm a hound."

The two shinobi, the Inuzuka and Yamanaka, continued on their journey for a while in silence, neither wanting to be the first to speak. Finally Ino couldn't take it anymore, she was a social person and to her silence was anything but golden.

"Are you ever planning on telling me what our mission is? Or are you going to wait until we're back in Konoha?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you, just keep your panties on," he said, and then winking at her, he added, "Or don't."

Ino rolled her eyes. "So what are we doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"We're looking for Shino"

"Looking for Shino? Is he hurt? I thought he was put on another mission."

"He is. Shino's under cover gathering intelligence for our mission, as well as three other that haven't even started yet."

"What kind of information is he getting?" Ino asked.

"He's gone in deep undercover to the terrorist group Kurushimi. They're a group of rogue ninja who've bribed four of the most powerful daimyo and brought them into the organization. These four daimyo are using their money and influence to unite all the missing nin under one group. Once they do that they're planning on bringing down all the great shinobi nations, Suna, Konoha, and so on until they're the strongest presence and can dominate the country side. Shino's on the inside trying to at least meet all of the four daimyo at least once so he can get a kikai bug on each of them so he'll always know where they are," Kiba explained. "Damn I feel like a fucking sage, don't I sound like I'm all full of wisdom?"

"You're an idiot. So we're meeting him to find out where they are? What? We're just glorified messengers? This mission sucks!" Ino sighed in frustration.

"Hold on, hold on. If you'd stop being so impatient and let me finish, you'd know that you're wrong. We're assassins. Shino's only managed to meet two of the four, but the hokage thinks we should move on it. Tsunade and the council believe that the death of one will disrupt them enough to delay their attack sufficiently for Shino to locate the remaining two."

"So we find Shino and he tells us where to find this guy?" Awesome, lets do this!" she said excitedly, and then added under her breath, "and get it over with." Ino hated assassination missions. She always preferred more straightforward altercations where everyone was on fair footing, even though her most accomplished jutsu was much more suited for other types of fighting. Though she had managed to speed up the time it took her spirit energy to travel from her body to its destination her Shintenshin no Jutsu (Mind body switch skill) was still not well matched for combat situations. The Shintenshin was as assassins' tool, and frequently she was asked for to be the Hokage's tool for assassinations.

Ino and Kiba walked through the forest searching for Shino for what felt like hours, and Ino was pretty sure they had repeatedly walked in circles, but feared telling the tracker because they had been getting along pretty well. She didn't want to ruin what little teamwork they had managed to scrape together by making an accusation that would sting his pride, when she wasn't even exactly sure she was right. So she trudged along at his side, dreading the coming assassination, but still feeling a little more hopeful then before she came on the mission. The assassination loomed, but Kiba had been admiring her rear end, and maybe just maybe, she could salvage a date for the wedding out of this.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I'm not happy with this chapter but the next one will be better, and longer.

They continued further into the forest for most of the day, and as the sun started to sink beyond the horizon the lush forest gave way to more rocky terrain. They had entered the mountainous region of Stone Country. Shortly after they entered the stark landscape Kiba stopped and said they should make camp, Ino however, disagreed.

"Why are we stopping here?" she argued. "We're not tired yet, and its not even dark. We can definitely cover at least two more miles before all the sunlight is gone."

"And where would you be going two miles toward, Ino?"

"Uhh…to meet Shino, jackass. The sooner we get there the better."

"So I'm going to ask you again, where are you going?" Kiba smirked. "Because you don't know where Shino is, that's the whole point of being undercover."

"So? That means you don't know where he is either."

"You're right, I don't know where he is, but he knows where I am, and he'll come here tomorrow when he can get away."

"How do you now that? You just said you don't know where he is, so how the hell does he know where we are? Stop being lazy and get up, we can cover a lot more ground tonight," she said, moving over to kick at him as he sat down.

"Knock it off," he said, slapping away her half-hearted kick. "I didn't say he knows where we are, he knows where I am. Shino knows because his bugs know. He put a kikai bug on both me and Hinata when we got put in the same cell so he'd always be able to find us."

"Eeew! Poor Hinata. First she has you with that crazy sense of smell, and then she gets Shino with those gross bugs, and she's got to walk around with one on her all the time. That's so gross! She got stuck with the worst team ever!"

"Shut the hell up! Hinata-chan got a great team. Way better then having a bitch and a lazy bastard, poor Choji," Kiba argued.

"A bitch? I'm not a bitch. You arrogant ass! Choji has never complained about being on a team with me and Shikamaru.

"Well Hinata has never complained about me or Shino, so what's your point?"

Ino realized she should have kept her mouth shut. She hadn't meant to start an argument, she had only meant it as a joke, more to herself then anything else. She hadn't even meant to say it aloud, but it had left her mouth before she got a chance to think about it. Ino really didn't want to fight with Kiba, especially since they had been getting along for the whole trip and she had begun to think he wasn't that bad. But now they were fighting and she didn't know what to do to stop it.

"I'm sorry," she lowered her head and self consciously bit her lower lip, she'd never been good at apologizing and it still felt a little uncomfortable to do it. "I shouldn't have said that. I didn't mean to offend you, sometimes I don't think before I speak."

"Sometimes?" Kiba raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Do you always have to be a smart ass? I'm sorry, okay?"

"Its too easy, Akamaru," he said, rubbing the big white dog's belly. Kiba looked up at Ino with a grin on his face, "I'll forgive you if you give me a kiss."

"Fuck you," she said. "If we're staying here tonight, don't you think you should put up the tents?

"Oh, I'm supposed to put up both tents by myself. Why? Because I'm the guy?"

Ino didn't have an answer for him, and if she did that's probably what she would have said. She couldn't remember the last time she'd put up a tent. When she'd first started training Choji and Shikamaru had always put up the tents, and when she got older anytime she went on missions with men they'd always up put them up. She could definitely do it herself, it was just that she hadn't in so long that she never thought to offer her assistance.

"I'll help," she quickly countered. "I didn't realize you would need it."

"I'll put them up," he said. "Just get me yours."

Ino dug around in her rucksack looking for her tent. She had so much clothing it was very difficult to find anything. After looking through it several times she started taking everything out, one thing at a time, to find her tent. When she'd emptied the entire contents of her bag out onto the ground without finding it, she remembered that she'd left it hanging in her yard. Ino had taken it out back to air it out. Sometimes when she hadn't used it in a while, the tent could get a musty smell that she absolutely hated. She had wanted to avoid sleeping with the moldy stench filling her nostrils. Unfortunately, she'd been so concerned with the upcoming nuptials that she'd forgotten the damn tent at home. Ino looked crestfallen standing among her belongings, her clothes strewn around her, she definitely wasn't looking forward to sleeping out in the open.

She looked up and noticed Kiba wearing that same shit eating grin she'd seen only minutes earlier.

"You can share my tent, Ino."


	6. Chapter 6

Ino woke early from a fitful night of sleep. She'd found it a little unnerving to sleep in the cramped tent next to the incredibly appealing Inuzuka. The tent was entirely too small for two people being made to accommodate only one, and she'd found it impossible to keep from touching him in the night. Making it even more uncomfortable, for her at least, was the fact that he slept in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. When she'd balked at the suggestion that she do the same, he'd explained that if she too slept only in her underwear she wouldn't have had to pack nearly as much and her pack would have been much lighter.

"Heh…maybe you might have even noticed you didn't have your tent."

So she'd spent the night with her face pressed against the side of the tent to avoid staring at the young mans incredible physique, especially his well toned torso. Ino, like many women, had a weakness for rippling abdominals. Just a glimpse of his body laying there almost naked had made her start to think of all the things she'd like to do to it. Knowing he'd probably let her had made it even worse. So she'd huddled against the canvas sides of the tent and tried not to move. Even pressed up as far as she could to cloth of the tent, her back pushed up against his bare skin, as he said the weather was too warm for a blanket. She'd fretted falling asleep and maybe snoring, which had made it even more difficult to find rest, she knew her attraction to the cocky sleeping boy was growing exponentially the more time she spent with him and she had no desire to don anything that might make her any less alluring. Snoring, or being skanky and seducing him that very night were not qualities anyone would look for in a girlfriend she thought.

"A girlfriend?" she thought to herself. "Do I really want to be the dog boy's girlfriend? I can't, that's completely ridiculous. I hate him." She continued to reassure herself that her attraction to Kiba was only due to her reluctance to attend Shikamaru's wedding on her own, and not due to anything the mutt ninja might have going for him. But it had been a losing battle, for in the short amount of time she actually got to sleep she'd dreamed of him holding her in his strong arms.

Since she'd risen before him, and wanted to clear her mind of any lingering thoughts of his naked body, she'd gotten a small fire going and with Akamaru's help managed to find some wild quail eggs to cook for breakfast. She got back to their camp and had the eggs cooked before the drowsy Inuzuka emerged from the tent.

"Aww.. honey you cooked," he teased, then winking he added, "Boy you must really wanna go for a ride. Choji tells me you've never cooked as long as he's known you."

"You're such a prick! A simple thank you would have been more then enough," Ino spat, every time she thought he might be good boyfriend material he said or did something to completely contradict her, but then he'd turn it all around again leaving her completely frustrated with her inability to focus her feelings for him, or lack there of.

"I'm sorry…..thanks," he said apologetically. "The eggs are great, and definitely a surprise. I figured we'd be eating ration bars for the whole trip. It was really nice of you to get up so early and go out of your way to find these. I didn't mean to be ungrateful. Really, I'm sorry for being an ass. Its just how I am, I can't help it. Try not to take offense next time, because lets face it, there's gonna be one."

She looked at him sitting there with a big smile on his face, not the smirking grin he wore when he was thinking perverted thoughts, but a genuine smile that lit up his whole face and made him more endearing than she'd thought possible. It was then that she knew that despite her best efforts, she was falling for him. That she actually wanted him to like her back, and not just enough that he'd screw her while they were on the mission and maybe be her date for the wedding, but enough that when the mission and the wedding were over he'd stick around. She wanted him to like her enough that he'd be with her, and keep her company long after the last piece of wedding cake was eaten. She wanted all that, and it killed her to admit it.

"It was nothing, but I'm glad you liked them," she smiled back at him. "So what do we do now?"

"We wait. Shino will show up as soon as he's able to without blowing his cover."

While they were waiting Ino went down to a stream she'd found earlier while out with Akamaru to wash off their breakfast dishes, while Kiba and Akamaru went to gather wood for the fire. They didn't know how long they would have to wait for Shino and the rocky terrain offered little in the way of kindling. He and Akamaru had to search far from the camp site just to find enough sticks for one night. The further from the campsite the got the more he wanted to turn back. Leaving Ino by herself in enemy territory was not something he felt comfortable with. Not that he doubted her capabilities. He was well aware of her skills as a shinobi, she was an exceptional konoichi and was far more then competent. He was sure she could handle any thieves or bandits she might encounter, but he worried that shinobi from Kurushimi might be aware of their prescence and catch her on her own. The thought of her cute little bottom in more peril then she could handle strengthened his resolve and he and Akamaru began to run back to the campsite.

Fortunately when they returned they found the campsite untouched and Ino laying out on a large boulder tanning in the sun. At their sudden arrival she jumped up abruptly.

"What's going on? Why are you running? Are we being attacked?" her voice filled with alarm as she readied herself for battle.

"Damn," Kiba cursed under his breath as he realized he fears had been unfounded and worse he'd made Ino think they were being followed and were in danger. There was no way he'd admit he had been worried about her, but he was hard pressed to come up with a believable excuse. And he had to admit she looked really sexy standing there ready for a fight, an eager gleam had crept into her eyes and a bloodthirsty grin found its way to her lips as she anticipated the scuffle Kiba's sudden appearance must surely signal.

"Umm…actually I was just running for…ummm…training. Yeah, training. Since we're out here on a mission that hasn't had much action as of yet, I wanted to keep up my conditioning. Akamaru and I can't keep to our regular training regime so we figured we'd get in a good run."

"Are you serious?" Ino asked incredulously. "You just freaked me out over nothing? Man, I was so ready for a fight."

In truth, Ino really was looking for a fight. The night spent laying in such close quarters to the alluring young man after months of celibacy not of her choosing, had left her feeling a little randy and sexually frustrated, a good scrap would have definitely relieved some of her tension. Instead, now she was left even worse off than before. The anticipation of the battle had worn off and she just felt weary.

"Oops, sorry," Kiba shrugged. "Maybe you just need to chill out, don't be so excitable."

Ino rolled her eyes and bit her tongue, Kiba was the last person she wanted to fight, even if he could be so completely infuriating, unless it was wrestling, and they were doing it naked. Suddenly Akamaru started barking excitedly, once again putting Ino on edge, she dropped back into a fighting stance. When trouble came she'd be ready for it.

"Relax babe, its just Shino. If it was an enemy there's no way Akamaru would bark and give away our location."

A few moments later Shino entered the campsite. Kiba greeted him with a hearty slap on the back.

"Good to see you buddy, glad you're okay. Hinata-chan's been crazy worried about you. She totally hates when we're on undercover missions and she can't communicate with us."

"Tell her I am well, there is no need for her to worry," Shino responded.

"Hi, Shino," Ino greeted the bug user.

Shino nodded in greeting.

"The daimyo you seek is located in the town of Furi-zu. It is a half a days travel from here. My kikai bug will show you the way."

"Awesome!" Kiba exclaimed. "We're almost there. I'm ready for some action!"

"That is unnecessary," Shino said calmly. "I've brought you a poison from the Hokage that won't take effect until an hour after consumption. That will give you time to get out of the city. Ino can mind transfer to a servant, get the poison, and serve it to the daimyo. Then you will leave for Konoha before anyone is aware of the deception."

"What?" Kiba questioned loudly. "Are you kidding me? What the heck am I here for if Ino's doing all the work? I don't get to do anything?"

"Once again you are becoming too emotional friend," Shino replied, never losing his calm demeanor. "You were necessary to the mission. Without you I would have been unable to locate Ino."

Inwardly Kiba steamed. This was bullshit. He was nothing more then a glorified tracking system, while Ino got to do all the real work. Ino noticed the aggravation present on Kiba's face and the tension filling his body, his fists were clenched and he was grinding his teeth. Ino felt badly for him, she sympathized with him more then he could know. Often in her youth she'd been the one who was useless on a mission, constantly needing saving, and almost always left behind when the others were sent on important missions. She put her hand comfortingly on his shoulder, and offered him a tentative smile.

Kiba almost pushed her hand away. He wanted nothing to do with her pity, but when he looked in her eyes it wasn't pity that he saw. Instead her eyes held understanding. He could tell she knew what he was feeling, and was offering comfort, not pity, so he took it.

Shino handed Kiba the poison and turned to leave.

"The daimyo eats at 1:00 in the afternoon, he'll have two S-Class criminals as bodyguards. Do not engage, I believe them to be beyond you. Just drop off the food and leave. Say nothing, his servants are not permitted to speak. Goodbye," he said before departing.

"Arigato Shino. Sayonara," Ino called after him.

"See you when you get home buddy. I'll tell Hinata you're okay," Kiba yelled to his childhood teammate.

After Shino left Kiba and Ino said very little. Kiba was still reeling from the news that he was to play no role in the assassination and Ino knew he needed his space to digest it. So she left him alone, instead focusing on making dinner from a rabbit Akamaru had caught and brought to them. They ate dinner in silence and went to bed early since they would have to leave before sunrise to make it to Furi-zu in time for the plan to work. That night Ino slept well, she didn't hide herself in the corner of the tent. She slept with her arms encircling the dejected Inuzuka in a comforting embrace, and he found rest with a smile on his face.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Sorry for taking close to forever to update, I hope those of you who like my story will continue to read it, and if you keep reading it I will make sure I update it more frequently, at least once a week. So please read and review.

I don't own Naruto though I'd be really psyched if I did.

Saturday morning Kiba woke early, earlier then even needed to, and far earlier than he ever woke during his normal schedule. When he first started to come into waking conscious and he felt arms encircling his waist his first instinct was to push them away. He hated when he fell asleep before being able to kick out one of his conquests and he woke with their bodies pressed against his. It made him feel trapped, and being trapped was one of the few things that scared him. Death didn't scare him nearly as much as being trapped or caged, he knew if he died it would be on a mission and his name would forever be engraved on the hero stone for all of Konoha to know he'd given his life to better the village. And for Kiba, very little was more important then the village. As a matter of fact, besides Akamaru, his sister, Hana, his mother, his teammates, Kuranai, Hinata, & Shino the village was the only thing he thought worth dying for, he rarely drew the conclusion that since he would die for the village he was pretty much willing to die for everyone he knew that lived in it, but that's how it was just the same. So just as he was about to shove the offending limbs from his torso his brain kicked into gear and he realized the soft skin touching his own belonged to Ino.

The annoyance and anger that had been filling his thoughts left like a gust of wind, replaced with feelings of comfort and warmth. Being in her arms soothed him and her soft skin was cool and gentle in contact with his bare stomach. Her breath was warm and sweet against the back of his neck, and her long blonde locks had escaped their ponytail home in the night to fall across his shoulders.

"Honeysuckle?" he thought. "Ino smells like honeysuckle." Ino moved slightly in her slumber, pressing pert nipples against his bare back, "ooh, I'd like to suckle on those," he chuckled to himself. Kiba lay there for close to twenty minutes just enjoying the pleasure locked into that moment. It had been quite a while since he'd woken up with someone that he didn't immediately want to kick from his bed, and even that hadn't happened recently. Though he frequently brought women home with him to the apartment he shared with Naruto, he usually threw them out that night, and most often right after they'd commenced with the festivities. Originally when he'd started bringing home woman after woman, he'd just left really early in the morning before they woke up and didn't come home until he was sure they had left. Usually Naruto would just eat breakfast with them, he loved having company, and usher them out of the apartment with words of encouragement, ensuring them he was sure Kiba would call, that he was just on an important mission. But that had ended when an extremely jilted feeling lover had accused Naruto of being glib and assaulted him with the plate of eggs he'd just been kind enough to cook for her. After that it had been Kiba's responsibility to get rid of them, Naruto wanted nothing to do with it. 

Kiba knew he was getting the reputation of a womanizer, and that many of the girls in the village thought he was a jerk, but it hadn't stopped him from being able to pick them up every night and get what he wanted from them, so it didn't often bother him. The only girl he'd ever cared about had been Hinata, she'd been his first and he'd loved her deeply, but as the relationship continued it became clear to both of them that though they loved one another, they weren't in love, so they had ended it amicably, remaining extremely close friends and trusting teammates. Since then he'd been unable to find any girl that he thought was worth his time. He compared all of them to the konoichi he knew, maybe that was unfair to them but that's what he did. So no woman he'd met had yet been able to match up to Hinata, Sakura, and Tenten and he'd kept himself from feeling anything for them. His reputation never bothered his woman ninja friends so it never bothered him. Until now, oddly enough as he lay there next to Ino, indulging in the bliss her sweet embrace brought to him, he began to worry that she may have been poisoned to feeling things for him due to his disreputable behavior. He began to hope she didn't share the views of the rest of Konoha's female population. It was true that Ino pissed him off more than any woman he'd ever met, but there was something that made all the arguing worth it. Something about Ino drew him to her, made him want to fight with her, just to be close to it, Ino's passion was what drove her, and what drew him to her like a moth to a flame. He was trying his damndest not to fall for the feisty konoichi but it seemed to him that he might have already lost the war.

When he felt Ino wake against his back, a wave of disappointment swept over him, he didn't want this peaceful morning to come to an end. Just lying with her made him feel happier then he'd been, even in the heated throws of sex, with any other woman in a long time, and he'd wanted that moment to last forever. Then he felt her silky supple lips press against the nape of his neck in a soft kiss that brought butterflies to his stomach.

"Good morning sunshine," Ino whispered in his ear. It was four thirty in the morning and they had to get moving if they were going to make it to Furi-zu in time for the daimyo's lunch. They had to be on the road moving with haste, but secretly Ino wished she could have more time in bed with him, she hadn't slept that well since she'd found out about Shikamaru's wedding, and she couldn't help but to think the Inuzuka had something to do with it. "We'd better get moving, looks like its ration bars for breakfast today."

"What do you mean?" Kiba asked with that naughty smirk on his face that pushed all Ino's buttons. "Why didn't you get up earlier so you could cook me something?"

"Because I was hoping you'd starve, and I'd be done putting up with your worthless ass," Ino answered.

Ino sat up, pulling the sheet from around Kiba's chest down around his waist, she tried not to stare at his body as she crawled out of the tent. He was so damn sexy, she had to avert her eyes for fear she'd give in to her own primal urges and screw his brains out right there, leaving their mission to fail once again. She had to get her clothes, she'd kept her bag outside due to its ridiculously large size, there was no way it would fit into the tiny tent. So while Ino kept her eyes forward to avoid gaping at him, Kiba took the opportunity to ogle her rear end as it slinked out of his tent, and thought of how he only had three more nights to share with her. He began to feel saddened at the thought that in just three days he wouldn't wake up next to her, and he wished their mission had been longer, even if this particular mission made him feel close to useless. Then he got another thought, and that one perked him right up. He quickly and quietly moved to the opening of the tent to peek out as the oblivious young konoichi took off her sleeping attire to dress for the day. She'd brought water up from the stream to wash quickly with, but she didn't want her wardrobe wet so she'd stripped naked and pushed her clothes far from the water basin, revealing for the first time her fully naked well-toned, lithesome body to the Inuzuka boy.

"So hot." The words escaped his mouth before he could stop himself and his hands shot up to muffle the sound. Fortunately for him, Ino's hearing wasn't quite as good as his own canine ears, and she didn't hear the words, but she did hear something. At first she thought they had been found by the rock ninja, but then something else dawned on her.

"Is he watching me? Was that Kiba?" she thought. Annoyed at first she reached for her clothes to cover up, but her attitude quickly changed as she thought of him looking at her body. Ino worked hard to keep herself in top physical condition and was hardly self conscious; she decided to give the boy what he was looking for. She purposely dropped the bra she had just grabbed hastily, and bent over slowly to pick it up, drawing even more attention to her tight round buttocks. Just as she was about to have the bra in her fingertips she shrieked and jumped up and down, turning her body to face the front flap of the tent, and the spying shinobi. Her perky, yet gratuitous breasts bounced up and down as she jumped in mock horror of an imagined bug.

In the tent Kiba silently cursed. His pants bulged from the stiffness of his throbbing member as he watched the sexy blond jump around for his benefit. He'd thought she hadn't heard him, but now he knew she had. The second she dropped the bra and danced around he'd known it was all for his benefit. No respectable ninja, female or otherwise, would scream over a bug, and he'd known the spectacle was for him. However, knowing that she knew didn't make the show any less entertaining, and now he'd have to deal with blue balls for the rest of the morning. Once again this girl was making him crazy, because while he couldn't tear his eyes from her incredible body, he couldn't help but feel like he' been teased.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thanks for continuing to read my little story, it always makes me happy when people read it. Any ideas how I can make it better? Should I put some lemony stuff in there? Let me know.

I don't own Naruto, which is painfully obvious as I sit here and I have to go to work in the morning.

The walk to Furi-Zu would ake six hours at a moderate pace. Kiba and Ino left their camp as the was rising.

"So, since we left at 5, we should arrive at 11. Which gives us a two hour window to find the daimyo, scout out the servant who prepares his lunch, find a place to hide the poison so I can grab it quickly while I'm in the other body, and get some information about the two S-class douche bags guarding the lousy daimyo. Boy that sounds like a lot of stuff, now that I said it all. Maybe we should go a little faster?" Ino said.

The terrain remained flat and rocky for most of the journey, and the shinobi found it wasn't difficult to pick up the pace. The weather was warm without being hot, and a cool breeze swept over the mountain ridge, keeping the two ninja refreshed as they ran toward the village of Furi-zu with Akamaru leading the charge.

The trio arrived at the gates of Furi-zu at 10:00, managing to cut an hour off their travel time. The village of Furi-zu was completely walled in. Though it boasted shinobi, Furi-zu was barely a quarter of the size of Konoha, and though it was located in stone country you would be hard pressed to find any Rock ninja behind its walls. They daimyo of Furi-zu was incredibly wealthy, probably the wealthiest of the four daimyo being controlled by the Kurushimi, because his family had found a vein of gold running through the mountain the city sat upon. They had organized a coup and slaughtered the original daimyo, his whole family, and all the Rock shinobi that served as his guards. So now his family was the one with money, but they would never be able to garner any protection from a shinobi of the Stone.

The village was surrounded by tall rock walls on three sides, with the mountain providing the fourth side of protection. There was only one visible entrance to the village, and so, Ino and Kiba walked up to the front gate. They were greeted by two guards, one was older, maybe in his mid to late forties, with his body going soft in the middle, the other was probably the same age as Ino and Kiba, he was tall, towering above his shorter counterpart, and rail thin, both were wearing the symbol of the Kurushimi, a flaming skull, on armbands tied to their right biceps.

"Konichiwa!" Ino smiled from ear to ear and batted her eyelashes, excitedly waving hello to the gate keepers. Kiba grinned at them sheepishly, while Akamaru walked next to the closest guard, who happened to be the elder of the two, sniffed he hand, and quickly rolled over onto his back, inviting the guard to rub his belly. "He just loves everybody, if you're not careful you'll be drowning in doggy kisses in a few seconds. I try to tell him that not everybody is a dog person, but he'll have none of it. He just doesn't get it, maybe its because he is a dog, but who's to say for sure," Ino rambled on and on as the chubby guard cocked his eye questioningly.

He bent slightly to pet the excited dog who was now rubbing his head against the man's pant leg and whining for attention.

"Hold on there, Teeko!" The young guard snapped suddenly. "Who are you two? And whats yer business in Furi-zu? Teeko did you forget we're to be on alert today?"

The fatter guard, apparently named Teeko, raised his eyes somewhat slowly, slightly embarrassed that he'd forgotten his duties when confronted by the pretty blonde's sparkling blue eyes and innocent smile. For a moment he looked like he might just let them in, but then he seemed to shake off the thought because he stood up straight again and turned his face hard. "That's right. State your purpose. What business have ya in Furi-zu?"

"We're merchants," Ino said quickly, obviously a little too quickly as she hadn't thought it out at all. Inwardly Kiba balked, and even Akamaru winced. Kiba was pretty sure they would not be getting in the village this way now, unless maybe they were in chains. There was no way they were going to believe that story.

"Merchants?" the beanpole guard questioned. "I don't see anything to sell, and you aint got no wagons. You think we're stupid of something, girl?"

"Ummm….w-we we're selling.." Ino stammered. "We're…ummm…the stuff we're selling is small."

Ino's eyes darted back and forth nervously, as she tried to think of a way to subdue the guards before they could raise the alarm. She wanted to kick herself, how could she have been so stupid. Kiba was going to be so pissed at her. This time if they failed the mission she knew it would be her fault. She inwardly kicked herself again, here they were, about to be in danger, possibly fail their mission, and Ino was more concerned that Kiba might be mad at her, than about any of the other things. She felt ill, and wanted to run away.

"Oh, it's small eh?" They young cocky guard started to move toward her. "So what kind of stuff are you selling? Really lady, you have got to be the worst liar ever, how stupid are ya? Thinkin we'd be fallin fer that."

"She's not lying," Kiba said suddenly. "We are merchants. Well I guess it's more accurate to say _I'm _the merchant." He grinned lewdly at the tall guard, while winking at Teeko.

"Just what the hell are you talking about there boy?" Teeko challenged. "You aint got no wagon either, unless you plan on summoning one, and then you caint get in anyways, cuz no ninja's is allowed in here. Repeatin the lady's lie aint fer makin it true."

"Ha ha," Kiba snickered. "You're not understanding me gentlemen. I've got something to sell and you're looking right at it. She just gets nervous around potential customers. Doesn't like to tell everybody and let em know. That's what I'm here for though, you know?"

The two guards stared at him for a minute and Kiba was afraid they didn't believe him, then suddenly, like a switch had just been flicked, they sneered creepily at Ino as it dawned on them what Kiba had said. Their eyes swept up and down Ino's figure, and she found herself wishing she hadn't rolled her skirt at the waist to give Kiba a better view of her butt.

"Hehe…" Teeko leered at Ino, but spoke to Kiba. "So yer to be sellin her? Or just her time? I can't be affordin to buy a slave, but I'm sure I got enough to pay for the ten minutes I'd be needin. How much mister?" He looked at Ino and winked.

Kiba grinned, Teeko thought it was because he was about to make a sale, but truly it was because they were believing his lie. "I don't know if you can afford it sir. She's my most expensive girl. $500's an hours what I'm asking for her."

"You kiddin me boy?" Teeko roared. "The whore's in town cost less then half that."

Sorry, my good man, but she's not the whores in town now is she? Look at her. She's clean, well fed, disease free, and in great shape. Check out the ass on her. Kira turn around and show the man the goods," Kiba tried not to bust out laughing as he ordered Ino around and slapped her ass when she turned around for the crass guards.

"I'm guessin yer right," the younger guard offered.

"That is a pretty fine ass, can we get a look at the titties?" he asked, and cupped Ino's left butt cheek in the palm of his hand.

Kiba's hand shot out lightning fast, pushing the man's had away and knocking him back a few steps as he fought to keep his balance but finally succumbed and fell on his ass.

"Sorry, sorry," Kiba hurriedly apologized. "No touching the merchandise until you pay. We'll be down by the bars when you get off duty. Come by and say hi, Kira will be waiting for ya. Well, we'll be seeing you later I'm sure."

Kiba grabbed Ino's hand and pulled her through the open gate before the guard could change his mind and get angry.

"See you later boys," Ino called back over her shoulder to the leacherous males, while smiling and waving.

The second they were out of the guards sight Ino pulled her hand back and smacked Kiba in the back of the head.

"What was that for, you crazy bitch?"

"I can't believe you have to ask, but I also cant' believe you just did that, so I must be completely wrong in all my assumptions," she shrieked. "Now those men think I'm a prostitute!"

"Its better then thinking you're a liar. Its your own fuckin fault anyway. Telling them we're "merchants." Like anyone uses that word anymore anyway, you couldn't have said salesmen or that we're in marketing like a normal person. No, we're merchants, from the days of yore. No, you go and say we're merchants when we don't even have a damn back pack. What the hell did you plan on telling them we were selling, oh yeah I remember now, you told them we were selling 'small stuff.' How do you even live woman? That was the worst cover I ever heard. There was no other way for me to fix it. Prostitution was the only resort, and I wasn't even sure that was going to work."

"Whatever asshole. You didn't have to parade me around and smack my ass for them. They were already believing you."

"Oh, that was for me baby," Kiba smirked. "I'll never turn down a chance to check out your ass, and definitely never a chance to touch it."

"Y-y-you are unbelievable!" she stuttered, she suddenly felt like an eleven year old Hyuuga Hinata while Naruto was in the room, Kiba had her so flustered. "That disgusting stupid boy put his hand up my skirt all because you wanted to touch my ass?"

"Look, its not my fault he likes your ass too. As a big fan of that perfect little ass of yours, I'm going to remind you what I told you earlier. It's impossible not to want your ass when you're wearing that little skirt. I can't fault him for wanting the same things I do. And come on, I did hit him for you," Kiba said, defending himself. In truth, he'd probably hit the guy a little too hard. He was lucky the guard hadn't gotten angry and raised an alarm to lock him up. He'd knocked the man onto his ass, Kiba had gotten into fights over less. But Kiba couldn't help it. He'd been so pissed when the guy put his hands on Ino that he'd wanted to punch him right in the face. Damn this girl! She had gotten completely under his skin in just barely three days. He hadn't even wanted those guys looking at her, let alone putting their hands on her, which was very unlike him. Kiba was not the jealous type, never had been, and thought he never would be, but here he was, this damn girl, Ino, made him behave completely out of character. With her he wanted to be protective, he wanted to keep her from being groped by other men's grubby hands, he wanted to keep her safe, to keep her for himself. And that bothered him more then anything. This damn girl was making him soft.

"I guess you did hit him pretty hard, and it was my fault you had to tell the lie in the first place. But you could have touched my ass anyway, so I'm not sure why you had to go and invent yourself and opportunity to do it. Oh well, I'm over it. Lets find this damn daimyo before those guys get off and come looking for us. I think we should head up this street over here," Ino said, pointing toward an alley on their right. "The sooner we get out of this shit hole the better."

She started walking toward the street, when she noticed Kiba wasn't beside her, she turned around and he was still standing there in the middle of the road.

"What are you doing?" Ino asked him.

"Huh? What? Where are you going?" Kiba asked, sounding entirely too confused for the conversation they had just had, and Ino started to worry, maybe they had been trapped in a jutsu, maybe the guards had actually seen right through their cover story.

"We're going to find the daimyo. I just told you. Are you okay?"

"You did? No way!"

"Yeah I did. Weren't you listening to me?"

"I was listening I swear. I'm sorry, its just you said I could touch your ass, and then well, then I don't' remember you saying anything else."

"You are ridiculous!" Ino snapped. "Lets get going, we only have two and a half hours left, and tons of shit to do."

The three of them walked down an alley toward the center of town, where Shino said the daimyo would be. Akamaru led the way, and the two Leaf shinobi followed, with Kiba's hand resting on Ino's left cheek.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Though I think it fairly obvious, I'd like to point out that I have no affiliation with or ownership of Naruto.

Please read and review, reviews are like my crack, I need a daily fix.

Now within the city walls the Konoha trio still had a lot to accomplish. Locating the daimyo was their first priority and it should have been their easiest task. However, things aren't always as they seem. Kiba, Ino, and Akamaru had found a small public garden located at the edge of the village, actually located right up against one of the outer walls, from which they intended to get started with their plans. The garden was far from the daimyo's location, secluded, and practically empty, which made it perfect for what they had to do. They walked through the park slowly, Kiba taking in everything he could, noting locations he or an enemy could hide, the positions of the few people strolling around the garden, and all the possible exits should something go wrong he needed to be aware of all his options, while Ino searched methodically for her target, apparently taking more time than a certain Inuzuka thought was necessary.

"Good lord woman," he spat with exasperation. "It's a damn bird, not your soul mate. Just pick one and be done with it. Let's get on with this _stupid _mission and out of this _stupid_ village. There's like a million birds here, what is _so_ damn hard?"

"It's not as simple as that," Ino said without a hint of aggravation. Kiba was right there was a ridiculous amount of birds in the park, but that was exactly the problem. "These birds aren't native to the area, Kiba. Look at them, this park is filled with exotic birds. Parakeets, cockatiels, parrots, macaws, even peacocks, this is obviously some kind of atrium or bird sanctuary or something. These birds have all been brought in here. I need to find one that's here naturally, I can't go flying around as a bright green and red parrot and expect that nobody will find it suspicious or even try to catch me."

Kiba looked around and noticed she was right, though he hated to admit it. He couldn't find a single bird that wasn't covered with bright flashy plumage. Ino was right, if she put herself in one of their body's she'd be spotted in seconds once she left the park. They needed to find a bird that blended in and he was getting more and more sure that it wouldn't be possible. Kiba sighed and batted away a mosquito that had flown in his face, though he didn't kill it since years of being Shino's teammate had worn off on him, but it did give him an idea.

"Ino?" he asked. "Does it have to be a bird?"

Noticing the swatting of the mosquito she answered, "No, it doesn't have to be a bird, but a mosquito won't work. Their minds are too simple, there's nothing going on in there. My mind would shatter it and we'd both die."

"What if it wasn't a mosquito? Can you do bugs at all?"

"Yeah, I can do bugs, they're not hard," she answered snottily.

"Hehe," Kiba grinned, and Ino knew she'd walked right into it. "If they're not hard, how can you do them? Doesn't sound like it would be much fun."

"Shut up, ass! Did you have a point or were you just setting me up for your lame joke?"

"Sorry, sorry. I do have a point. I just couldn't help myself; it was too perfect to pass up. I didn't even mean to set that up, it just happened, like magic. Man that was great…"

"Well, what the fuck was your point?" Ino interrupted his rambling reminiscence of his lame joke. "I can't use mosquitos and that's all I see around here."

"That's all you see, but their not the only bugs here. You're a ninja, you have to look underneath the underneath," he said while extending his left arm and turning his wrist so that his palm was facing up. A small black bug turned its eyes up at her knowingly. "Would a kikaichu work?"

"Shino's destruction bug? Nobody's ever used one. The kikaichu are exclusive to the Aburame clan, so we've never encountered one we could try it on. But they are known to be extremely intelligent…" Ino grinned at Kiba while nodding her head. "Yeah, I can do it. We'll go over there, out of everyone's sight."

Ino pointed to a patch of grass off the path behind a large willow tree, and the three of them walked over. When they'd gotten closer to the tree Kiba communicated to Akamaru that he should stay in front of the tree to distract any wandering eyes, and to notify him if anyone was coming over their way. Once behind the tree Ino and Kiba sat across from one another cross legged and Ino got ready to perform her mind transfer jutsu. She didn't want to tell Kiba, but she was a little nervous about using it on the kikaichu. Nobody in her clan, or any other clan as far as she knew, had ever tried the jutsu on a destruction beetle because they were telepathically linked to their Aburame hosts. Ino wasn't sure if the sudden switch would affect Shino, and she definitely didn't want to be the cause of a blown cover. She lowered her head and took a deep breath. She let the air out slowly, calming herself and finding her center like Azuma had taught her all those years ago. Now composed, she lifted her eyes to the deep chestnut gaze of her companion. That's when she noticed that now familiar, smirking grin on his face.

"What now?" she demanded.

"You're not wearing any underwear," he said continuously grinning.

"What?"

"You don't have on any panties," he said slowly, over enunciating each word.

Ino stared at him, still confused; of course she didn't have underwear on. They were on a mission, and every good konoichi knows not to wear underwear on a mission. It rides up your ass, giving you an uncomfortable wedgie the whole time. You don't want to be pulling your panties out of your crack in front of your teammates. Not to mention, that the second it takes to do it can be long enough for an enemy to attack. Why didn't Kiba already know this? Choji and Shikamaru had known from the time Ino knew, she'd bitched about the wedgie their entire first mission and never wore panties on an assignment again. Didn't Hinata tell her teammates anything?

"You did this for me didn't you?" Kiba said, still wearing the smirk, but now nodding his head. "I'll admit it Ino, you are an awesome chick. You're always thinking of me, and I'll tell you what I appreciate it. That is a nice view. Very well manicured I must say. Is it just for looking? Or can I give it…"

Thump! It had taken her a minute to decipher what the hell he was talking about, admittedly far too long, and when she had finally realized she was sitting in front of him with no underwear on, cross legged, and wearing a skirt, the pushy bastard had already started reaching his hand toward her panty less nether regions. She whacked him on the forehead.

"I didn't do it for you, ass! Konoichi never wear underwear on missions. I can ride up your butt and ruin your concentration. And if I'd remembered I was wearing a skirt I wouldn't have sat like this. Now let me see the kikaichu and get this over with."

The disappointed Inuzuka held up his best friends destruction bug, and pouted.

"Shintenshin no Jutsu." Ino's fingers flew through the hand signs like it was second nature, and a few seconds later her body fell forward limply into Kiba's lap.

Immediately Ino felt Shino's mind touch her own. However, the extremely sharp kikaichu had known what was going to happen, and already warned its host of the imminent switch, leaving Shino prepared for what was to come. Ino quickly flew through the village to find the daimyo, with Shino now able to direct her telepathically she benefited from his knowledge of the area. He not only directed her to the daimyo, but to the servant who would be bringing the lunch and a suitable spot for the poison as well, cutting down considerably on the time she and Kiba would need to prepare. Unfortunately while she was in the kitchen scoping out the server, a chef noticed her and began swinging wildly with a spatula trying to squash her. He wasn't aiming well but he was extremely quick and Ino found it difficult to dodge his erratic swings. She was unused to maneuvering in her current body and the chef's spatula caught her on his backswing, flinging her across the room to slam into the cement wall, leaving her dizzied and stunned.

Meanwhile, back across town, Kiba was sitting guard over her real body, blissfully unaware anything was amiss, and wishing he wouldn't feel guilty for lifting Ino's shirt. As it was he knew he'd feel like a complete dirt bag if he did, but he really wanted another peak at those amazing breasts of hers.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Kiba thought to himself. "It's not like you haven't seen tits before. Oh man, but hers are so nice, just one quick peek, and then I'll leave her alone. No, that would be wrong I can't do it. Ugh, when did I get a conscience? She'll never know, she's not even in her body. Which I guess is why it's wrong."

After arguing with himself for a while, Kiba decided it would be best to just stand guard over her hot little body because he knew it would bother her if she found out he'd looked at her, plus he was pretty sure that when they got out of this shitty town he could convince her to let get a look at them while she was actually in her body. That's when he noticed something about her was a little off. When her body had fallen on him after she'd left it, Kiba had leaned her up against the back of the tree to make it look like she was sitting, however her head lolled to the right and her arms hung limply at her sides, with her wrists bent oddly where her hands met the ground. Kiba mulled over ways of correcting the unnaturalness, maybe he could put her hands in her lap or her pockets.

"Hey, mister! Is she dead?" The booming voice of a small child startled him, and Kiba rocked back on his heels almost falling over. The boy stared up at him incredulously from beneath the brim of a baseball cap. "Is she, mister? Is she dead? I've never seen a dead person before."

"N-no, she she's not dead," Kiba stammered, having been caught off guard. Where the hell was Akamaru, why hadn't he warned his master about this kid? That's when he noticed the big white dog lying on his back getting his belly rubbed by the small boy.

"Then why's she actin like that?" he asked. "Is she drunk? My dad looks like that sometimes when he's drunk. Except, usually he drools too."

Kiba stifled a giggle. "Yeah, she's had a little too much to drink, so I'm trying to keep her hidden until she sobers up. I don't want her to get in trouble, her parents would be really mad if they found out. Would you keep it a secret? Go back to your parents and try to keep them away from this side of the park. I'll give you this," he said, holding up a large canine incisor that he'd taken from his mother's last nin-dog.

"Awesome, mister!" the boy yelled. "I'll definitely keep em out of your way. But I gotta tell you something my dad says, cuz I think you're a pretty nice guy. I know she's pretty, but my dad says it's the pretty ones that ruin your life. They're just bad news, you should always date ugly girls, the pretty ones are way too much trouble. And not for nothin mister, but she's drunk now, and its not even lunch time. So I'd bet my dad's right about this one. She is pretty though."

"Thanks kid, you're probably right," Kiba said, handing him the tooth. "Now get going."

See you later, mister. Nice meetin ya, I really like your dog, he's way better then the girl."

Kiba laughed to himself, thinking about the welt on his forehead he was almost inclined to agree. That was until he remembered watching her get dressed earlier, and then he was sure he disagreed completely. He started day dreaming about the curves of the blonde konoichi's body, when he was jarred by Akamaru's excited barking. A large older man with a giant bloated belly hanging over his pants was huffing and puffing as he stomped his way over to their hiding spot.

"What are you doing over there boy? You hiding a drunken girl over here?" the bulbous balding man yelled irately.

Kiba knew there was no way he'd be able to convince this guy Ino was drunk, and he couldn't get to the nearest exit fast enough carrying her. So he did the only thing he could think of. He pushed Ino's body to the ground and climbed on top of her. Straddling her thighs with his own, he used his left hand to prop her head up, and kissed her inanimate lips, while groping her breast with his right.

Ino looked up at the man with the spatula and saw him hurrying over to finish the job. She tried to get away but she was too discombobulated and her body wouldn't do what she wanted it to.

"Ino, release the jutsu. My kikaichu won't be disoriented and can get away. If you stay, both of you will die." She heard Shino's voice in her head and knew he was right.

"Release."

Suddenly she was back in her body, but something was terribly wrong. She was pinned down unable to move, something was in her mouth, making it difficult for her to breathe, and she could feel someone roughly grabbing her breast. She couldn't get air, she was being choked. No, she was being kissed, however poorly; it was definitely a tongue in her mouth. She tried to push away, but the second her assailant felt resistance he immediately stopped and pulled himself off of her. Ino looked up to see Kiba run his hand through his wild hair and mouth to her, "I'll explain later."

An instant later an incredibly fat sweaty man with a receding hairline came blustering up to them reeking of body odor and waving his fist around.

"There is no fornicating in this park you two. This is a public place and people take their families here. I thought it was bad enough when I heard that little boy telling a squirrel he'd just seen a lady so drunk she was passed out before noon, but then I come over here to see you, young lady, letting this boy put his hands all over you. Honestly, girls these days should show a little more restraint. Have you no decency? No shame?"

Ino was fuming. Not only had she just been manhandled, but now this guy was saying it was her fault.

"Are you saying this is entirely my fault sir?" she asked, biting back the urge to call him a fat piece of shit and punch him in the face.

"Absolutely young lady! If I should even be calling you a lady. Ladies don't behave in such a lascivious manner," the man roared, and Kiba started snickering. "Look at this boy, he's a mess, he's got scruffy hair, dirty clothes, and tattoos on his face. How is he supposed to resist a girl who looks like you? He'll never get a chance like this again. It's not possible for him to withstand your charms. So, it's up to you to stop him."

This time it was Ino who snickered.

"Man, I'll have you know that I get tons of hot chicks all the time. And I can certainly control myself if I want to," the Inuzuka barked. "I'm a fucking good looking guy, maybe I'm a little dirty right now, but women find me sexy, so shut the hell up!"

"His blustering only proves my point," the man said to Ino, ignoring Kiba's outburst. "He can't control himself around you. Especially while your wearing that little skirt. It's an invitation for disaster. It's completely impossible for him to restrain himself or his hormones while you're walking around in that. I'm just offering some friendly advice, if you want to keep this guy off you, you can't be wearing a little skirt like that. It's indecent anyway; girls should be wearing much more when they go out of the house."

"Thanks for the advice sir," Ino replied through gritted teeth.

"Thanks my ass," Kiba shouted. "What is with people in this place giving advice? First that little kid, now this guy, who's next? Just leave us the hell alone."

"You're welcome, young lady," the man said to Ino, choosing again to ignore the now livid Inuzuka, he bowed and left the two of them to sour out their differences on their own.

"Don't listen to that guy, Ino. I can control myself around you. I was only doing that because I couldn't move your body out of here quick enough and I didn't want to explain why your body wouldn't move. Otherwise I would never have done that."

"Oh? Too gentlemanly to take advantage of me?"

"Hell no! I'm not a gentleman. But I prefer my women to be full participants in the action. If you're catatonic its no fun for me," he said giving her that grin she was starting to be quite fond of.

"Oh yeah, I forgot, you get tons of hot chicks right?"

"Hehe…" Kiba laughed nervously. "I was just saying that. I haven't been with that many women."

Kiba felt flustered. This was not how he wanted the day to go. Back when the day started he was sure by the end of it he'd wind up naked somewhere with his cute blond partner, but that idea was quickly fading. He'd wanted their mission to go great, and their night to go even better, and he certainly hadn't wanted the first time he kissed Ino to end up like that.

"Wait," he thought to himself. "Saying the 'first' time indicates that you think there's going to be other times. So not only do I plan on kissing her once, but I plan on doing it multiple times. What the hell is going on with me? Why do I care if the kiss was lousy, usually I don't even care is I cum before a girl gets off, suddenly I don't want to disappoint one with a bad kiss? It's this damn girl, she must have bewitched me."

Ino watched him as he struggled to explain himself, tripping over his own words and getting more and more flustered in the process. She found him to be so adorable and almost endearing as he stumbled over his explanation.

"So anyway, in closing, Ino, I would never have chosen to kiss you at such a time, when you couldn't kiss me back."

"You mean like now?" she asked, catching the nape of his neck, pulling him close. Her mouth settled on his and her lips were warm and inviting. Kiba used his tongue to push them open, deepening the intensifying kiss. Ino felt sparks ignite and leap across her skin and butterflies dance within her stomach. While Kiba was glad, and not for the first time, that Ino let passion rule her life as his own heart rate soared and he wished he could stay there, in that moment, forever, just kissing her.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Sorry I took so long to update, writers block sure is a bitch. I must have sat down to write this like a million times, so finally here it is, its not so good, but its got things moving again so I'm just gonna roll with it. Hope you don't hate the chapter; at least I got one out.

Kissing Ino was turning out to be one of the best moments in Kiba's life and he definitely didn't want it to end, in if fact he could just stay here kissing her forever that would be just fine with him. So when he felt her start to pull away from him, he pushed toward her, and when she stepped back he stepped forward, making it impossible for to part her lips from his. Their momentary closeness and the feel of her body so close to his, had completely wiped the mission from his mind. He wanted only to continue kissing her and maybe explore the rest of her body parts with his own. Ino was having many similar thoughts. While her tongue dueled with his, she remembered the finely sculpted stomach muscles that resided just beneath the mesh shirt that was now right under her fingertips, and with the way he was kissing her she knew there would be no objection to her removing it. This was a far cry from their first mission together, full of arguing and bickering, well maybe not that far, since they had been teasing one another non-stop, but this time it was for fun, not in anger. And Ino was sure their teamwork had improved drastically. Not only could she put up with Kiba's arrogance this time around, now she was starting to find it really sexy. She was positive they would complete this mission and that Tsunade would be proud of them.

That's when she realized she had to stop making out with Kiba. She definitely didn't want to, his hands had wandered under her shirt and the way he caressed her breast and rolled her nipples beneath his fingertips sent shivers down her spine. Stopping the natural progression of where this was going was the last thing she wanted to do, but failing the mission was not an option. And if they continued on this course that was what would happen. Ino pried her hands from Kiba's firm backside and put them between their bodies to push them apart, but he wasn't making it easy for her. Ino's hands struggled to push against his chest while he pulled her closer to him. She pushed at him harder and pulled her head back. In response, Kiba lightly bit her lower lip to prevent her from robbing him of her sweet kisses, and Ino smirked at him and started to giggle. Kiba knew Ino was trying to stop what she'd just started only minutes before, and really he wanted to honor her wishes but she just looked so sexy grinning up at him like that, her blue eyes twinkling naughtily, while she not so innocently giggled at him that he just couldn't. He moved in to kiss her again but she stepped back and shook her head at him. Kiba was left staring at her, mouth agape with a look of dejection carved into his fine features.

"What's the matter? Did I do something wrong?" he asked crestfallenly.

Ino stopped giggling and looked up at his face, realizing she'd hurt his feelings. She hadn't meant to, she hadn't even wanted to stop their intimacy but somebody had to, and she was pretty sure it wasn't going to be him. The mission had to be their focus, not each others anatomy. She didn't want to upset him though, in fact she'd much rather be pleasing him, but the assassination had to be their number one priority.

"We have to focus Kiba, and not on each other. We're on a mission. The daimyo needs to be taken care of in two hours and we need to prioritize."

"So you don't think I should be a priority?" he asked her angrily, his temper flaring.

"Right now you can't be," she answered feeling sadder than she thought possible. Ino had been excited for a new romance, not a chance to fight with another guy, and certainly not to hurt one. She'd hated to admit it but Kiba had become special to her, even if it had been in such a short time span she'd grown attached to him, and hurting him was something she had no desire to do, and yet apparently she had, because here he was standing here pissed at her. "Can't we pick this right back up after the mission?"

"I can't schedule my feelings Ino. I'm not promising anything. If you want to throw yourself at me you should be ready to finish what you start instead of being a damn cock-tease," Kiba said, far more venomous a retort then he'd originally planned on.

"_Shit_," he thought. He didn't want to fight with her, well unless it was wrestling and they were doing it naked, he wanted to hold her and kiss her, and feel her soft skin beneath his fingers, but the way things were going it looked like the only thing he'd be feeling of hers was her hand slapping across his face if he kept it up. Damn his Inuzuka temper! It was just that she'd gotten him all riled up and excited, in more ways than one, and now she was telling him to stop. She didn't know what she was doing to him, that cute little blonde was making him crazy, invading his thoughts and making his blood boil, she was like a disease. She'd let him taste the forbidden fruit and then pulled it away from him. It was like taking Naruto to a Ramen cook-off, showing him all the different flavors, telling him it was free, letting the delicious aromas fill his nostrils, giving him one bite of a huge steaming bowl, and then yanking it away and telling him he couldn't have any until next week. It was simply cruel, she was being unreasonable; he'd already had his hands on her breasts and felt her hard nipples in his fingertips for crying out loud. Then she'd suddenly pulled the plug. He hadn't meant to get angry and snap like that, but come on, he was only human, and she'd been mean.

Ino on the other hand was stunned. She didn't know what to say, his outburst had left her speechless. A cock-tease? Her? Ino? No way! Ino was not a tease. In fact wasn't Sakura always telling her she should slow it down, she moved to fast, that she didn't have to give it up so easily? Ino had always hated girls like that, who would take advantage of her friends. The ones that would grind their asses against Choji and Lee all night at the bar, wearing as little as possible, getting the boys to pay for their drinks all night long, and then at the conclusion of the evening place a chaste kiss on the poor guys forehead leaving a lipstick smear behind to mark them chumps. Ino was not one of those girls; in fact she'd beaten up several of those girls until Choji had asked her not to come out with him anymore if she couldn't handle it, telling her that if she was around he couldn't even get a girl to dance with him because they were afraid she'd kick their ass. She wasn't like that at all and she resented him saying she was. Not to mention she was pissed that Kiba would say his feelings for her could already be gone by the end of the mission. Her stunned silence was about to come to an end; Ino was heated mad.

"Are you kidding me? I'm supposed to like you enough to fuck you right here and now, which I do by the way and would but we have a mission, while you on the other hand don't even know if you'll still have feelings for me by the end of the week? And then you have the nerve to call me a cock-tease like you haven't been sleeping naked all week because you know I'll look at your body and want you? Bet you didn't know I knew that? Well I did. Hinata told me all about that friggin nose of yours. I know that you can always smell it when someone is horny. Pheromones or something? So you knew I wanted you and did it on purpose. Its bullshit! You're a cock-tease, not me."

"It's not my fault that looking at me makes you smell like a bitch in heat! Maybe if—"

Kiba never got the rest of his sentence out. Ino had punched him square in the nose and when he'd reached up to try and stop the blood she'd kicked him in his still pretty hard erection, reducing him to a curled up whimpering mutt laying in the grass. Pain was running through his whole body. Kiba felt like throwing up, he'd been kicked in the balls before but never in an aroused state. Usually once a girl had him at attention they got down on _their_ knees, they didn't knock him to his. He didn't think there was any pain that could be worse then this. Tears had filled his eyes and he thought he might actually prefer dieing to this agony. That crazy bitch was fucking evil. Hadn't punching him in the face been enough? He'd admit he probably deserved the punch, he'd been out of line, but this was overkill, there was no way he deserved this. It was horrific, he might never be able to have children now, and she had probably caused irreparable damage that his penis would never recover from.

Ino looked down at her fallen partner, tears streaking his face. He looked miserable lying there, suffering, and it made her feel bad. She'd overreacted to his insult, but he'd overreacted to her decision to put the mission first. It was never ending, she thought. If they managed to move past this argument there would always be another one waiting to take its place. It's just how it was with personalities like theirs; moments of peace would be few and far between. Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Genma had all been different. They were calm and cool, never hot headed and irrational, none of them had ever fought with her like this. None of them had argued with her continuously, pushed all her buttons on purpose, or teased her unmercifully. And they never would. That's when she realized that Kiba was the one she wanted more then anyone else. Sure he did all of those things, but she did them to him too. He pushed her buttons, that was for damn sure, but he couldn't have pushed them if he didn't know her well enough to do it, he was the only guy who'd ever understood her. Kiba got her, and for that she wanted him. He pushed her buttons, but they were all the right ones. Kiba would make things interesting, Ino was sure, and not just in the bedroom, which Ino was sure he'd do too, because Kiba knew what made Ino tick, because Kiba and Ino were the same. He was the fire that made her burn.

And at the moment Kiba was in burning agony because of Ino. She'd never felt so terrible. He was in horrible pain and it was her fault. Ino knelt down in the grass to use a medical jutsu to heal his nose, which she was pretty sure she'd broken. As she reached over to him, he flinched and tried to pull away like she was going to hurt him again.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Let me heal your nose."

"It's not my nose I'm worried about," he answered.

"I think its broken Kiba. You have blood running all down your face. What are you more worried about then that?" she asked thinking she already knew the answer.

"Its Little Kiba, well he's actually more like Gigantic Kiba, but he's the one I'm worried about. My nose will heal, but he won't be so fortunate. I think you killed him."

"I'm really sorry. I overreacted," Ino said as she passed her green chakra glowing hand over his nose for the last time, completing the healing process. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Yes, you did," he said. "You punched me in the face. I think that was meant to hurt. Usually that's a sure sign that somebody wants to hurt you, seeing as how the face is a sensitive area. Unless I'm mistaken?"

"Okay, okay. I meant to hurt you. Just not as badly as I did. I definitely didn't mean to break your nose. Come closer, I can take some of your pain away."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not in condition to move around. You are going to have to come closer to me. Oh, and before I say this I want you to know that I'm going to forgive you, but I know you wanted to break my nose—"

"I did no—"

"No, no, no. Don't interrupt me, let me finish," Kiba put his hand up in an attempt to silence her. "You wanted to break my nose. You figured you could just heal it anyway and everything would be fine. I'd have had my nose broken, but you'd have fixed it. I'd be sorry I called you a 'bitch in heat,' which I am by the way, sorry, and I'd be grateful you healed my nose, which I am, thanks, and when the mission was over we'd go back to my place and fuck like rabbits. But what you didn't want to do, but you did because you have a crazy temper, which might actually be worse then mine—"

"It is not!" Ino interrupted.

"Excuse me, didn't I ask you to let me finish? You have no patience woman."

"Yes, sorry," she apologized.

"So, what you didn't mean to do was hurt Little Kiba, because now he won't work and you'll never feel the power of his giganticness between your thighs. And on top of that, you'll be stuck in a sexless marriage because now that you've broken Little Kiba, and he'll never again be gigantic, you'll be guilted into marrying me because nobody else will. Look what you've done Ino. You've ruined both of our lives now. Are you happy?"

Ino had finished the pain relieving jutsu and looked up from her work to see the Inuzuka wearing a crooked grin, mischief dancing in his eyes.

"You are ridiculous," she said laughing. "Little Kiba is going to work again just fine, and when this missions' over I'm going to give him a nice big sloppy kiss, and we'll see just how gigantic he really is."

"Are you sure you don't want to give him that kiss now? I think it would make his day. Yeah, he just told me that he'd really like a kiss right now, one with a lot of tongue."

"Shut up! We have a mission to finish. And the sooner it's done, the sooner I can get my meeting with Little Kiba. Because you know without a proper introduction I can't just let him enter me. Oh, I mean enter my home," she quipped. "That would be a shame because I've been waiting and I really want to have him in."

"Well then move your ass woman. We've got a mission to finish!"

A/N: If you read this all the way through, thanks! Please review so I can make it better.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: I've had this written for like three weeks now and I've just been too lazy to type it up. Boy that sounds even lazier when I say it. So anyways, there's some lemony stuff in here, so if that's not your thing, I've marked where you should stop reading.

Kiba followed Ino through the streets of Furi-zu, his mind focused more on the fun he'd be having when the mission was over then on the actual mission at hand. His gaze continued to find its way to Ino's derriere as she navigated the city's thoroughfare. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he should be watching there backs and concentrating on their surroundings, but it just seemed really difficult at the moment. A good shinobi is always completely aware of their environment, and though Kiba had always prided himself on always being very aware of his environment, unless their current location consisted of Ino's ass he was out of luck. He knew he should be more interested in the things going on around him but every time he tried to concentrate on their current task he felt his eyes returning to Ino's rear end like flies to shit. From there his mind wandered to all the pleasure and enjoyment that her ass, not to mention the rest of her body, would be bringing him later on. He definitely meant to have her tonight. He couldn't take it anymore, sleeping so close to her every night, waking up to her soft skin and honeysuckle sweet scent every morning, and spending his days getting closer to her then he ever thought he would want to was turning him into a horny dog. He could just imagine himself humping her leg soon if he didn't get some action. He was going to get some tonight, he was sure of it. She had just about guaranteed it, and there was no way he was letting her deny him again, his body wouldn't be able to take it. They just had to finish this mission and he was home free. If only they were finished with the damn mission right now, he would be a much happier man.

"The mission! Damnit!" Kiba thought to himself. "Why am I having so much trouble concentrating? All I can think about is fucking, and while that's not really all that weird most of the time, I'm never like this on a mission. What the hell is wrong with me? All I can think about is Ino. Ahhh…. Ino. She would look so fucking hot with her mouth on my cock. Oh yeah, that would be sweet. Maybe she'll do it now if I ask. Wait, no, the mission, I have to think about the mission. Not about Ino. Damn that minx, if only she wouldn't wear that little ass skirt. It's too small. It's a distraction, blocking my concentration. It barely covers that tight little ass, and she's not wearing anything under it. Hell yeah, that'll be convenient for later when I'm fucking her. Later? Why does it have to later? I could just pull her down one of these alley ways and have her screaming my name in seconds. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Shit! What am I thinking, we're on a mission. We have a job. Something is wrong with me. I have to focus."

Completely ignorant of the battle raging in Kiba's mind, Ino walked down the streets of Furi-zu with confidence, unaware of the fight for clarity going on in her partners mind, she was positive that he was vigilant in his duty and anticipating any approaching danger. While she focused on remembering her way to the location Shino had shown her to hide the poison. The problem was that the streets looked a lot different through her own eyes. Objects and places looked a whole lot different from a bugs' point of view, especially when it concerned distance. She was covering ground less quickly in her own body, unable to dart and fly through the air as she had in the Kikai bug's body, she had to walk through the streets, maneuvering around carts of peddlers, shoppers, stray dogs, and everyone else who made up the population of the village, which was taking up a good bit of her time. However, locations were actually a lot closer to one another then they had appeared when she'd been miniature. What had appeared to be miles when she'd flown through earlier was actually just a few blocks. She had actually missed a few turns because she's thought they should be further away and they'd had to backtrack, eating up more of the little time they had left before the daimyo would be dining. They only had about an hour left so she decided they would have to forget about the S-rank mercenaries. If their plan worked smoothly, as it should, it wouldn't matter anyway. Really, she'd wanted information on them more for her mission report and her own curiosity then for the task at hand, so scrapping it wasn't too terrible. Due to her and Kiba's earlier indiscretion they didn't have time for it, and it was of lowest importance on the list of things they needed to accomplish.

Finally she found the spot she was looking for. The outer wall of the village's civic meeting center, which was much less grand then Konoha's hokage tower, was made up of thick concrete building blocks woven together in a criss-crossing pattern that would allow those inside to see out but prohibit those on the outside from seeing in, a precaution taken by many villages to protect their inhabitants if ever there were a siege. Luckily the wall had not been repaired since the last war, and at a turn in the wall, where the blocks ran perpendicular to one another, a large chunk of concrete was missing through which Ino could slip her hand and place the poison in the dirt on the other side. On the other side of the thick wall was the daimyo's garden, open to all who came to visit the civic center. Ino would have no trouble retrieving it once she got inside. Shino had recommended it due to the three large butterfly bushes planted in front of the wall to conceal the unsightly fissure from sightseeing guests of the civic center, inadvertently providing cover for Ino to hide the poison without being seen. Now she and Kiba would be able to get through security without any chance of being caught with the deadly poison.

Having placed the contagion in its hideaway, Ino steeled herself. The easy part of the mission was over. From here on out there could be no mistakes. She would have no weapons until she returned to her own body and while her taijutsu was exemplary it was never often difficult to perform in someone else's body. The plan was for Kiba to transform Akamaru to human form so the nin-dog could stay outside the civic center with all of their weaponry hidden on his body. Ino and Kiba could then pass through security unhindered and continue on to the back of the central building, where the kitchen was located. Ino would mind transfer to the servant while the staff was emptying the trash, while Kiba doused them both with sake and carried her to the civic center's other entrance, explaining that she'd had too much to drink, so as not to arouse suspicion from the guards. He would then meet up with Akamaru to arm himself and re-arm Ino so that she would arrive back in her body equipped and ready to go, effectively cutting back on the time it would take to leave the village. Ino, in the servants body, would hurry to the garden, grab the toxin, and return to the kitchen. From there she'd get the daimyo's lunch from the kikaichu swatting cook and serve it to the unsuspecting feudal lord; a steaming bowl of kakuni with a surprise. Ino had seen them stewing the pork belly dish on her first visit to the kitchen and rejoiced. The heated soy sauce and sake in the dish would liquefy the powdered poison almost instantly and the dark shade would mask any discoloration. It was something she had worried about earlier on, but now it wouldn't be a problem. Everything was falling into place; now it was time to take their plan and make it a reality.

Kiba and Akamaru walked into a back alley while Ino checked to make sure there was nobody around and signaled with a loud whistle that it was clear. A few seconds later Kiba came out of the alley followed by an adolescent Naruto, complete with a blaringly orange jumpsuit.

"Are you fucking serious? We're trying to look inconspicuous, so you turn him into a bright orange advertisement for trouble?" Ino asked exasperatedly.

Akamaru whimpered at the outburst and Kiba answered, "He's my roommate, I can remember what he looks like better then anyone else but Shino, who I can't use because he's already here, and Hinata, whose white eyes would have Akamaru surrounded in minutes. So it has to be Naruto, and that's what Naruto wears."

"Fine, but why did you make him twelve years old? People will try to talk to him. A little kid hanging out by the civic center with no adults nearby is a tad odd. People will start asking him where his parents are, and if he's lost. And unless I'm mistaken, no matter how human-like he appears, Akamaru can't talk. What is wrong with you, baka? Use your head today. Change him!" Ino demanded.

Kiba fought the urge to throw her against the wall and fuck her senseless, that would show her. Yelling at him like he was a child, where did she get off. She'd much easier to put up with if she was on the receiving end of his cock. What the hell was the matter with him? What the hell was the matter with her? Being so loud in public was nothing his dick in her mouth wouldn't fix, he thought. Damnit, he couldn't stop it, sex was clouding his thoughts, impairing his judgement, and screwing with their mission. Which was why Akamaru was standing there, clad in vivid orange, reaching only four feet in height. His head just wasn't in the game and he couldn't seem to get it there. She was right, the couldn't leave a Akamaru there with this form. He quickly took Akamaru back down the alley and returned to Ino with a full grown Naruto, this time wearing black pants and an olive green t-shirt.

"Much better," she proclaimed. "Lets get going."

Kiba quickly reminded Akamaru of the plan and his part in it, then he and Ino left the Naruto look-alike sitting on a bench pretending to read a book, as smart as Akamaru is reading is just beyond him. The dog would be able to sense Kiba's chakra and move to meet him when he left the civic center. Ino and Kiba moved through security unimpeded and made their way to the back of the compound. They moved over to a tall willow tree located on the property behind the building and waited for the servants to come out the back door with the trash. Shino had informed them that every day at 12:30 the kitchen staff took out the garbage. The daimyo had prohibited them from having any garbage on the premises that could contaminate his food during the final stages of its preparation. Ino planned to snag the server while he was carrying out one of the trash bags. Sure enough, at 12:30 exactly, the kitchens entire population marched out with bags of trash. Ino spotted her target heading left to an enclosed dumpster.

"Phew," Ino breathed a sigh of relief. "We've got a smoker. He'll be out there for a few minutes. That makes it easier for me."

Ino looked up at Kiba and smiled, they would be separated for the most crucial parts of their mission and she was almost hesitant to leave him. "Stay safe, Kiba. Oh, and make sure little Kiba makes it out in one piece too. I wouldn't want to miss out on the enjoyment of his company," she said.

Ino grinned at him and winked, then carefully, yet quickly lined up her shot.

"Shintenshin no Jutsu."

Ino's body collapsed into Kiba's arms and he carried her to the back side of the giant willow tree to liquor them up. He sat her up, leaning her against the tree. Taking out the sake filled flask, he poured some of it down the front of her shirt, only a small drop of it remained unabsorbed by the fabric of her shirt, and it rolled down over the swell of her bust, stopping at the tip of her breast it clung to her nipple for a moment before falling to the ground, exciting Kiba yet again.

"I'm sure she wouldn't mind letting me get a look at those titties," he thought, reasoning with himself, and making excuses for behavior that he knew somewhere in the back of his mind was wrong. "She's going to let me see them later anyway, it would just be like a preview to the show later. And she definitely wouldn't want me to just let that sake sit there on her skin making her all sticky. I'll have to lick it off for her. She'll thank me for it later."

Kiba moved his hand to slide it up Ino's shirt.

"Is that why you stay with her mister?" A strangely pre-pubescent voice boomed in his ears. "She's a drunk, but she doesn't care if you touch her goodies in public while she's passed out? Mister, you don't have to do that. My dad knows girls that will let you touch them while they're awake."  
Kiba turned to look at the blaringly loud little boy and noticed, with a good bit of concern, that it was the same boy he'd met earlier, only this time he was proudly wearing the large canine around he neck.

"Shhhh….No, no, no." Kiba stammered. "It's not like that. What are you doing here kid?"

"Oh," the boy said knowingly. "She doesn't know. I got it. You stay with her cuz she gets so drunk she doesn't know you touch her no-no parts. Yeah, I get you. My dad tells me the boozers are the best dates because you can get away with anything. I'll tell you something though mister, none of the boozers my dad brings home look as pretty as her. She doesn't smell as bad as them either."

"…" Kiba didn't know what to say.

"Oh!" the kid started speaking again like he'd just remembered something. "Duh, same reason you're here. The daimyo's important announcement is after lunch. Everyone in town's gonna be here stupid."

"Hehe…that's right," Kiba grinned. "I didn't think about that. With everyone here someone she knows will see her and tell her parents she was drunk again. I better get her out of here before she gets in trouble. Would you go over there and try to distract people so they don't see us until I get her moving? I'll give you these."

Kiba flipped two gold coins out to the excited little boy.

"Are you serious mister?" The boy beamed up at him, grinning from ear to ear. "I get to keep these? For real? This is soooooo awesome!"

"Yeah, they're yours kid. Just keep the people looking at you. You've been a great help today. You're a good kid. Oh, and a word of advice, you might want to ignore your dad's advice on women. All the pretty ones aren't bad, and despite the fact that I'm with this one, the boozers aren't always the best choice."

"Thanks mister, but I already know that. My mom told me that. She said that's why we live in a nice house and he's out on his ass. I was just trying to tell you cuz you don't look like that smart of a guy and I wanted to help you out. See you later mister, and thanks for the tooth. My older brother is so jealous, hehe…its great!" he said jumping into the air pumping his fist, the running off to distract the masses.

"That little shit," Kiba mumbled. "Don't look like that smart of a guy? I look plenty smart. He's crazy. Stupid kid."

Kiba looked down at Ino and realized her clothes reeked of sake but it wasn't on her breath, and he wasn't sure that the guards wouldn't check. He pulled the top off the flask and was about to pour a little of the sake down her throat when he got an idea. He could put the sake in his own mouth and kiss her. That would leave her mouth drenched in sake and her breath stinking of it. Then he got another idea, if he had to kiss her to get the sake on her breath he might as well put his hand up her skirt. It would make it more believable to anyone who noticed what he was doing, he reasoned with himself. As Kiba leaned over the konoichi's body he inadvertently knocked into her shoulder, causing her limp head to swing back unnaturally and awkwardly, snapping Kiba from his delusion.

"What the hell am I doing?" he said inwardly. "I was just about to molest her while she's incapacitated. She's trusting me to protect her body, my only friggin function on this shitty ass mission, and I was about to be the one to violate it. I'm disgusting. I can't believe I was going to do that. Man that's low. _She's_ not even in her body and _I'm_ trying to be. I'm despicable. I've lost my mind. This girl is making me crazy. I can't be trusted with her. I'm never going to take a mission with her again. She's just not safe around me."

Kiba chased all the inappropriate thoughts from his mind, covered his fingers with sake, and pushed them into her mouth. He was afraid if he poured it into her mouth she might choke, and his ridiculous kissing idea was totally out. Kiba hoisted the light konoichi into his arms and carried her to the civic center exit. The guards didn't question his drunk story in the slightest and he met up with Akamaru outside the gates.

As he neared Akamaru the dog, in Naruto's body started whining at him. As he moved closer, the nin-dog became more agitated and barked at him. Sniffing excitedly, Akamaru ran circles around his master occasionally growling at him, until he lowered Ino's body onto the park bench. Akamaru handed Kiba's weaponry back to him without further problems, but when he reached over to put Ino's equipment back on her person the Naruto shaped dog placed himself in the way and slapped his hand away from the girls empty body.

"What's wrong, Akamaru?" Kiba asked his dog worriedly. It was rare for Akamaru to growl at him, and rarer still for him to be more protective of someone other than Kiba then Kiba himself. Did the dog know what he'd almost done earlier?

Akamaru didn't answer him, most likely because he couldn't talk, but he did take Ino's weapons from Kiba and arm her himself. Kiba didn't know what to do, his thoughts didn't seem like his own today and now his own dog, his best friend since childhood, was growling at him and didn't trust him. Something was wrong with him, and if he could stop thinking about being naked with Ino he was sure he could figure out what it was. The problem was he just couldn't seem to stop thinking about Ino naked.

Ino had followed the other smokers when they went back into the kitchen. She washed her hands and looked around. She wasn't positive what the man's duties were other then taking out the trash and bringing the daimyo his food. She tried to figure out her next step when someone else did it for her.

"Baka!" A withered old woman shrieked in her face. "Get your tray prepared. What are you standing around for? Get moving! Now!"

Ino quickly ran over to the large silver serving trays and began to place the silverware and dishes on it the same way she saw the other servers doing it. When she was done she walked over to stand in line with the other waiters.

"What are you doing, man?" the waiter on her left asked. "Something wrong with you today? Get out of here before she—"

"Baka!" the old woman shrieked again.

"Too late," the waiter finished, as the little woman came screeching to a halt in front of them.

"What are you doing over here? Are you trying to get us in trouble? The daimyo eats first. Got that? It's simple. He's served first. He eats first. He does everything first. Not after anyone else. Get your stupid ass to the front of the line and don't screw up again!" she bellowed, whacking Ino in the back of the head as she moved to the front of the line.

From there on Ino found the mission moved smoothly. She received two ladles full of kakuni, managed to carry it out to the daimyo without spilling a drop, she did have to resort to using chakra when going upstairs, but still she thought she did a good job. She succeeded in properly serving the dish to the old bastard, and most importantly she was able to sneak out for the poison without the old lady noticing. Once the daimyo had been served she ran down the stairs and through the kitchen, grabbing an unopened bottle of sake not used up in the creation of today's lunch, and out to the enclosed dumpster. She opened the bottle and poured its contents all over the waiters body. Ino sat down on the sake soaked pavement and made sure the bottle was still in her hand when she released her jutsu and returned to her own body.

She came to sitting on a bench; Kiba and Naruto's eyes glued to her face, eagerly anticipating her return. She could see worry lines etched onto their faces as they'd fretted what to do if she didn't return. She smiled up at them and Kiba suddenly gave her a giant bear hug, Naruto growled slightly from the other side and then nuzzled his face into her neck and licked her.

"Good to see you guys too," she said. "Now lets get out of here."

"Definitely. It's a long way back to camp, and I've got some introductions to make," Kiba said with his signature shit eating grin plastered on his face.

"You are too much," Ino giggled as he dragged her through the streets and out of the village.

The three of them reached the campsite at dusk. The sun had just started to set and the temperature began to cool. Kiba quickly began to set up his tent while Akamaru lovingly showered Ino with kisses. Since her return the nin-dog had been behaving normally and Kiba had practically forgotten about his earlier antics, possibly because he was super psyched about future activities.

"Do you want some help?" Ino asked.

"No, just get ready," he said.

"Get ready?" she thought. "Oh, dinner. He puts up the tent, I do the cooking, okay whatever. I'm hungry anyway."

She quickly performed the only fire jutsu she knew, one she'd gotten Sasuke to teach her when they'd been dating, and started the campfire. Searching through her backpack she realized they were almost out of food, it was a good thing they were on their way home. There were few options for dinner though, and she pulled a can of baked beans from the bag and started looking for a can opener. She knew she'd packed one, but with all the other things she packed she was finding it extremely difficult to locate the damn thing.

Aha! Finally she found the can opener stuck in the bottom of her pack wedged inside an extra pair of shoes she'd brought in case her current pair had gotten wet. Kiba had been right, she thought, she completely over packed, it was actually pretty ridiculous. With all the bull shit she had managed to pack, she still hadn't remembered her tent, which if she was being honest with herself hadn't turned out all that badly. She opened the beans and poured the can into a small pot that she's also brought. Holding it over the fire, she began to shake it a little to allow the beans to move and heat up all the way through.

Kiba finished assembling his tent, and laid down both sleeping bags, one on top of the other, trying to pad the ground as much as possible. He didn't want Ino too badly bruised when he started thrusting into her, after all, he did have to keep her in good enough condition to screw him for at least two more nights. If being plowed into rock hard ground left her too sore and bruised it might be more difficult to convince her that she wanted to spend more time being naked with him. When he was certain he couldn't make it any more comfortable he crawled out of the tent to get the girl who'd been on his mind all day. He looked over and saw her jerking around with a pot full of beans, and worse than that she had all of her clothes on.

Kiba just shook his head, "What are you doing?"

"Getting dinner ready," she said looking up.

"That's not what I meant, Ino."

"Huh?" she looked at him in total confusion. "You don't like beans? We don't really have anything else. I think I might have some beef jerky if you want that instead."

"No, that's not it. That's not what I meant."

"So what, you don't want to eat now? You said get it ready. What the fuck?" she huffed and crossed her arms against her chest.

"The only thing I want to eat right now is you. I wanted _you_ to be ready, as in naked, and ready. Ready to meet little Kiba, he's been anxious to meet you all day."

"Oh, is that what you meant?" Ino asked, looking up at him and grinning lasciviously.

"Yes it was," he growled at her. "But I guess I'll have to help you with that too."

As Ino stood, Kiba moved to stand right behind her, nibbling on the top of her ear and planting feathery kisses up and down the back of her neck. His hands moved greedily to pull of her top, but she moved her own to stop him.

"Stop," she said. "There's something I want to do, and I won't be able to if we do this your way."

Kiba raised an eyebrow skeptically, not trusting her not to leave him with aching blue balls like she'd been doing throughout the mission.

"Please?" she begged, giving him puppy dog eyes as she pouted, her lower lip pushed out making him melt. "Just lay down. You'll like it, I promise."

He wasn't so sure, and just as he was about to protest, she pushed him down onto the sleeping bags he's so carefully arranged for her comfort, pulling the mesh shirt from his body as she did so. She ogled his rippling stomach muscles, lean and toned, looking up and down his naked chest, for the first time letting him know she was admiring it. Kiba saw the hungry look in her eyes as she gazed at his body, and the lustful way she ran her tongue over her lips as her eyes made contact with his, and felt a tightness run down his stomach. Before it could reach any lower Ino had unzipped his pants and pulled them from his body, leaving him in just boxer shorts, which she removed just as quickly.

(PLEASE STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE LEMONS)

Ino leered at his body again, making Kiba feel like a piece of meat. He realized that he kinda liked feeling like a piece of meat, until he noticed she was staring at his manhood, which was sadly still mostly soft, making it much smaller then he wanted it to be the first time he introduced her.

"It's not small," he said hurriedly. "You rushed me, my way would have been better."

"Sshhhh…" she whispered. "This is what I wanted."

Kneeling over him she took his delicate flesh into her mouth. She rolled the soft skin in her mouth, sucking on all of it while cupping his testicles in her hand she extended her tongue to lick and play with them as well. She continued to suckle at his growing member, drawing him harder with each caress of her tongue. Kiba shuddered as her tongue rolled over the tip of his erection, glad to see it had grown to something he could be proud of. He would have to admit, her way hadn't been bad at all, he was at full attention now, and he was pleased to notice she was having a little trouble with his size. Despite that fact she continued her oral assault, drawing gasps from the dog-boy as she took his whole length into her mouth and he felt himself slide down her throat.

"Ino, stop," he moaned. "When I cum, I want it to be somewhere else."

She giggled, and with his cock still in her mouth the vibrations drove him crazy. "Really, baby, please, stop," he begged.

She sat upright, moving to straddle him, and he suddenly remembered that she wasn't wearing anything underneath that skirt.

"Stop," he put his hand up, and she stopped, looking at him flustardly.

"What's wrong?" she asked hesitantly.

"I need to help you get that off," he said, pointing to her top. "I want to see them."

She grinned at him sexily, and lightly bit her lower lip, coyly lifting her shirt over her head to reveal the bindings konoichi used to cover their breasts on missions.

"Is that what you wanted to see?" she teased.

She started unraveling the bindings. She was moving as quickly as she could, but Kiba didn't want to wait any longer. He grabbed a kunai from his pants that she'd thrown to the side of the tent, and sliced them right down the center, spilling her perky breasts before him.

"I told you I'd help," he smirked.

This was what he'd been waiting for. He raised his torso from the ground and brought her breast to his mouth. He licked around her areola, flicking her nipple with his tongue, causing her to inhale deeply at his touch. He lightly nibbled on her pert nipple causing her to gasp.

"You're gorgeous," he whispered into her breast as she moaned his name.

Then his hands slid over her hips and down to spread her legs for him. His finger plunged insider her and she cried out for him again. A moment later Ino felt a second finger enter her, finding that certain spot and flicking back and forth, over and over, growing faster and faster, until she threw her head back and moaned his name again.

"Kiba….ah…"

Hearing her yell his name like that sent shivers down his spine. Her hands stoked his wild hair and pulled his face back to her breasts where he continued to draw them into his mouth. He slipped a third finger inside her and had her writhing on his hand. He pulled his head back so he could watch what he was doing to her. She looked so hot tearing at the sleeping bags and trembling as she came for him.

Kiba couldn't take it anymore. Watching the blonde ride his fingers to completion had almost put him over the edge. He'd said he wanted to cum inside her and he'd be damned if he was going to blow his load before he even got there. He suddenly rolled them, putting Ino on her back with him on top of her. He held his upper body above her on his arms like he was doing a push up and Ino spread her legs to allow him an entrance. He pushed inside of her, hard and fast, thrusting into her incredibly tight wetness. She locked her ankles behind him, keeping him from pulling away from her, now that she had him inside her, she didn't want to let him go. He looked at her face expecting to see her crystal blue eyes to be looking up at him, but instead he saw her looking down; watching every thrust as he moved in and out of her hot velvet sheath. Ino felt Kiba's gaze on her face, looked up into his eyes and smirked, then looked back to his thrusting cock. He hadn't expected her to be looking, but he realized he was digging the fact that watching him pull in and out of her was getting her off. She thrust her hips to meet his and writhed beneath him. Now he felt his eyes drawn to the same place as hers, and he watched as he slammed himself into her, three times, five times, eight, he felt her muscles tighten around his shaft as her orgasm took her, and with one last thrust he spilled himself inside her.

(LEMON IS OVER YOU CAN READ AGAIN)

Kiba stayed there, above her, panting and grinning, he bent down and kissed her, long and hard. Ino looked up at him and smiled demurely, looking more like an angel then the naughty sex kitten who had just screwed him senseless, and Kiba couldn't stop staring at her. Noticing the goofy grin on his face as he stared at her, she asked him, "What? Why are you looking at me like that? You wanna go again?"

"Ummm…no, I mean, well… yeah, but that's not it," he stammered. "Oh, hehe… we can do it again? Right now? Because that would be awesome."

"Sure we can," she said, grinning coyly at him. "But I want you to do something for me, okay?"

"Anything," he said.

"I was hoping you'd say that," she answered. "Will you come with me to Shikamaru's wedding?"

"Uhhh…sure…" he answered, that wasn't what he was expecting, but if it meant he got to sleep with her again he'd have done anything.

"Plus, that's seven more days I'll be with her," a thought that he would never have imagined would make him so happy.

A/N: Please review, I was going to say "read and review" but if you've gotten this far, chances are you've already read it, so then please review. This is the first time I've written any sex, it was really hard, if you have any advice please send it my way. Thanks! Oh, and Kaotic312 thanks for noticing Kiba wouldn't forget the mission, I am going somewhere with that.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: I don't own Naruto, maybe if I did I would be better at updating. Usually this is where I would promise to update more frequently, but I'm going to try something new and be honest, I'm a little flakey and I may not update for a while, but I will try my best to do frequently enough to keep you interested in reading it.

And now on with the show---

Ino woke up feeling extremely well rested. Kiba's voracious sexual appetite had kept her up late into the night and completely exhausted her. Her seemingly endless bout of celibacy had left her body unprepared for marathon rounds of sex and she had slept like a bear in hibernation. She looked over at the Kiba to see he was still sleeping soundly, apparently she'd tired him out as well. She thought he looked so peaceful that she couldn't wake him, no matter how much she wanted to have a repeat of last nights events. She quietly slid out of the tent taking one more look at the sleeping Inuzuka, he had tossed his sleeping bad aside in his sleep and he lay there suggestively even in sleep, in all his naked glory, making Ino want to crawl back into bed with him. However, it was already Sunday, they needed to be home by Tuesday, and they would already be getting a late start as it was, so she continued out to the campsite to start a campfire.

Akamaru was already awake, having risen with the sun and caught himself breakfast earlier in the morning, and he walked with her down to the stream where she hoped to catch some fish. Ino waded into the cold water ready to catch anything that swam by and thought about how wonderful last night had been. Kiba had been amazing, licking her in all the right places, and hitting just the right spaces, over and over again. She'd cum so many times she couldn't even remember them all. She had to hand it to the dog boy, he certainly knew what he was doing. He'd played her body like an instrument eliciting sounds from her that she didn't even know she could make. He was definitely well schooled in the erogenous zones of the feminine body.

"He probably learned from the tons of chicks he's sleeping with," she thought, which brought a frown to her face. "He's nothing but a male whore. He'll probably sleep with anything that has a pulse. Last night probably wasn't even special to him. I'm just another lay in a long line of girls stupid enough to fall for him."

Ino's anger had risen to radioactive levels in just minutes. She gave up fishing, as she refused to cook anything for that no good piece of shit, in fact she was mad that she'd ever cooked him anything, and wished she could pump his stomach just to prevent him from having anything she'd ever given him, including food. She stomped out of the water and began her march back to camp when suddenly Akamaru was blocking her way. The nin-dog barked menacingly at her and began growling. Ino looked at her canine companion in bewilderment. What was wrong with this dog? Just a minute ago he'd been nuzzling her hand and letting her rub his belly, and now he looked like he was going to bite off her head.

Back at camp Kiba woke up hoping for another quick romp in the sheets, well technically sleeping bag, with the blonde nymph and turned sullen when he saw she wasn't tucked in beside him. She'd probably come to her senses and abandoned him in the night he thought.

"No way," he muttered to himself. "I was perfect last night. She was screaming my name and so totally into me. I was like a sex god last night. There is no way she abandoned me. She's probably just getting me something to eat so I'll have enough stamina to do her right again tonight.

Kiba reasoned with himself that as much fun as he was sure they both had last night there was no way the cute little blonde would leave him, at least today anyway. He was pretty sure he could keep her around for the rest of the mission and now he was even going with her to that lazy Nara's wedding, so that extended her time with him for a few more days, the problem was when they returned to Konoha for good. That, Kiba was sure, was when the trouble would start. Back in Konoha was where Kiba's reputation as a womanizer would be staring Ino in the face every day and he wasn't so sure the konoichi could take it.

He knew for a fact that if he managed to get Ino to be his girlfriend at least twenty of the girls he'd slept with were crazy enough to approach her and recount the terrible things he'd done to them, or at the very least rub it in her face that they'd had sex with him too. Man he wished he hadn't been so free with his loving in the past. He hadn't cared back then, but that was before the hot blonde with the tiny skirt and no panties had crawled under his skin and made him crazy. Now he was sure he didn't want her out of his life, as far as he was concerned he'd rather be crazy for eternity then have her leave, but he was also pretty sure that she'd be leaving soon enough. It would take a girl with extremely tough skin to be able to date him, and Ino just seemed so small and breakable to him, plus her skin had felt like soft rose petals last night, nothing like the calloused skin one would need to put up with the trail of ex-one night stands Kiba had.

Thinking again about last night got him thinking about how much he'd like a repeat performance of it. Which got him thinking about how hot Ino looked when she came for him, which gave him a giant hard on, which made him wish Ino was back at camp.

"Oh well, I'll just go find her, and we'll take care of this," he said, looking down at his huge erection.

Kiba fumbled on a pair of boxer shorts and stumbled out of the tent. That's when he heard Akamaru growling and barking angrily. Someone must be attacking Ino he thought. He grabbed a pack full of kunai and ran toward the growling.

Kiba quickly came upon Ino and Akamaru close to the stream. Ino was facing him in an attempt to get past the giant white dog, who was facing away from Kiba blocking her way growling and bearing his teeth to the small blond konoichi.

"Akamaru!" Kiba yelled. "Knock it off! Ino, he must be jealous, I'm so sorry, he's never been like this before."

"Jealous?" Ino screamed at him, her anger only having grown even greater the longer she stood there. "Jealous of what? That I got to be another one of your whores? That when this mission is over I'll be just another conquest for you to laugh about with your friends? Tell me Kiba, is he jealous that you I'm going to be just another joke? When you tell everyone about it will you even imitate the sounds I make? Or maybe the faces?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kiba was completely taken back. He hadn't expected this so soon, especially since they hadn't even gotten to the village yet, and her rage was insane. He hadn't even done anything to deserve this, usually when women were yelling at him it was because he'd refused to sleep with them again or caught him with someone else, not because he'd gone looking for them and hoped to go at it again. "Ino, why are you acting crazy?"

"Crazy? I'm not acting crazy! Is it crazy to feel used when you know you're going to be thrown away like garbage? Is it crazy to be hurt when you thought something and somebody was special and it was a lie? Is it Kiba? Am I really being crazy?" Ino continued screaming at him, and Kiba was sure if Akamaru hadn't been between them she would have attacked him physically as well.

"No, that wouldn't be crazy, babe," Kiba spoke evenly trying to calm her down. "But what's crazy is that you think all those things are true and they're not. I'm not going to throw you away. I'd actually like to keep you around because I thought last night was special too, because I think you're special, and I want us to have lots of special nights together. So where did you get those crazy ideas?"

Ino just stared at him for a while, her face deep in contemplation as she considered everything he was saying. While Ino had been known to fly off the handle occasionally, especially when in Kiba's company, yelling like a lunatic at a man she had earlier hoped would be her boyfriend was not her usual M.O. Come to think about it, her behavior the past few days had been slightly off. The other night when she'd angrily kicked him while in a semi-aroused state had been out of character as well. Now the punch in the nose was all her, she was sure about that, but past that she'd been filled with rage and acted infantile. Something was definitely wrong with her.

"Kiba," she said finally. "Have you been behaving oddly at all over the past few days? Had any strange thoughts or uncontrollable urges?"

Kiba thought it over and at first he couldn't think of anything, but then he remembered there had been a few times that he'd been unable to control where his thoughts went, but none of them were things he wanted to discuss with her, that would be far too embarrassing.

"Yeah, there were a couple of things."

"Like what?" she asked.

"Oh just some little things here and there."

"What kind of things? Was it like you got really angry and you couldn't control it or stop it?"

"Ummm…no, not really."

"Well what was it then? I think something is going on. Like the other day when I kicked you in the balls, I would never have done something like that. And just now, I was really mad over nothing, I had actually come down here to make you something for breakfast. But then I started getting really mad. Is that what's been happening to you too?"

"Hehe… you just don't want to take responsibility for kicking me. Its okay though, I've forgiven you."

"Don't change the subject, you said you've been noticing odd things, if you aren't getting angry whats going on?"

"Oh, just having some out of the ordinary thoughts, that's all."

"Cut the shit, what thoughts? I need to know if something is wrong or I'm just a crazy bitch."

"Well you're a crazy bitch, problem solved."

"Fucking tell me and stop being a child!"

"Ugh, fine. Both those times you left your body back in the village I got these really strong urges to ummm… play with it. I didn't do it of course, because that would have been crazy and gross, but at the time I really wanted to. And yesterday when we were walking to the civic center I couldn't concentrate on the mission at all. All I could think about was fucking you. Not like that's odd or anything, because you are really freakin hot and I totally want to have sex with you, like a lot, and multiple times, but it was during the mission and I couldn't think about the mission at all. If you hadn't kept moving and insisting we had something to do I wouldn't have done it at all, and contrary to what you might think that's not like me at all."

"I think someone is messing with our emotions Kiba, or our minds or something. I don't think we are behaving rationally sometimes," Ino said.

"I think you're right young lady," a familiar voice spoke out, as the fat balding man from the park yesterday materialized before them. "Not that its going to do you much good to know now, since I'm going to kill you."

A/N: Sorry to end it like that, but I'm tired and I figured a short update was better then none at all. But don't worry I have the next chapter almost finished so it should be up shortly.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: So I guess shortly turned into like forever, but here it is. I really have had this written for a while but I am really not happy with it, however I know I hate when authors abandon stories so I decided to put this up even though I'm really not thrilled with it.

Oh, and I don't own Naruto, which is so sad for me.

"I think you're right young lady," a familiar voice spoke out, as the fat balding man from the park yesterday's voice rang out. "Not that it's going to do you much good to know now, since I'm going to kill you."

"Who are you?" Kiba growled.

"Ha-ha, wouldn't you like to know?" The man teased. "Maybe if you had stuck to your own mission goals you would have found out. But fortunately for me you ran out of time and didn't investigate the S-class criminals guarding the daimyo."

"So we didn't get the daimyo? Fuck!" In cursed, pissed that they had failed another mission.

"Oh, you got him alright you little bastards. While I was trying to figure out who your spy was I didn't notice you slip him the poison. I'll admit that was pretty tricky. I've known your location the entire time you were in Furi-zu, and you never even got close to him. So I don't know how you did it. But at least I caught your spy," the ninja bragged.

Kiba's face paled at the thought of Shino's capture, and Ino began to feel physically ill. How had Shino gotten caught?

"You piece of shit!" Kiba yelled, stepping forward to attach the rogue. "Where is he?"

"Ahhh… temper, temper." The man infuriatingly joked with Kiba. "Don't worry; my associate should be bringing your ice wielding friend in any minute. Though I doubt he'll be in any condition to help you."



"Ice?" Ino thought to herself. "This guy has the wrong ninja. On top of being ridiculously out of shape for a shinobi, he may also be a complete moron. I have to talk to Kiba and work out a plan to get out of here. I'll have to try that new jutsu."

Ino had been working on a new jutsu that let her speak telepathically to her teammates; however it was far from perfected yet. Choji, her poor test subject, had been to the infirmary on at least seven separate occasions because the direct contact had been so loud it had done a vast amount of damage to his inner ear. She hated to think what it could do to the already sensitive ears of the Inuzuka, but she had no other option. She would just have to think in whispers, a hard task for the boisterous Yamanaka, but she had to do it. She wasn't even sure she would be able to complete the seals as she had no idea where the fat bastard was hiding in his invisible state. Luckily Kiba had decided to play along with the fat guy's misconception.

"Bullshit dude! Our spy is an experience jonin, he will have whoever you sent after him frozen solid by now," he called out.

"I sincerely doubt it." The second he spoke, Ino could tell the area he was located and turned slightly toward it so she could form the seals without his notice. "My associate is literally home to thousands of bugs. They will eat your friend from the inside out before he can freeze even a single one. And then when he gets here, they can eat your little girlfriend while you watch."

"Great, this guy is an idiot," Ino said to Kiba.

"Shut up, he'll hear you," Kiba thought to himself. "She does nothing for the dumb blonde stereotype. Ino is so freaking hot, but sometimes I don't think there is anything going on upstairs, she has no freaking common sense."



"Fuck you, asshole! I'm communicating with you using a mind jutsu, he can't hear either of us. Though unfortunately I can hear you, and I'm going to smack the shit out of you when this is over. Dumb blond stereo type? You suck."

"Shit, you better not stay too long or you'll know exactly what I want to do to that hot little body of yours."

"I'm sure I'd love to find out but we have to take care of this guy before Shino gets here. That way he can say he caught the spies and it won't look suspicious. Can you keep him talking? Then I can pinpoint his location and use the shintenshin no jutsu. Apparently, he knows nothing about my abilities. Then you can gatsuga into him and I'll release my jutsu before impact."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Ino. If you don't get out on time I could kill you."

"It will be fine. I'll get out in time. There isn't any other way that will work as quickly. You have to trust me, like I trust you."

"I trust you, it's not about trust. I don't ever want to hurt you, let alone hit you with my strongest jutsu. We have to think of something else."

"There is nothing else Kiba. This is how we're doing it, now just man up and do it."

"So little dog boy," the balding ninja taunted him. "Are you worried about your little girlfriend? Are you afraid to watch her getting eaten alive? To hear her scream while bite through her flesh?"

"Shut up, you coward!" Kiba shouted. "You're just going to wait for your friend to get here? Are you too afraid to fight us on your own?"



"Afraid? Of you two? That's a joke, right? I never had such an easy time manipulating someone. You, boy, were even easier then the girl. All I had to do was plant naked images in your head and you forgot about your mission completely. You have no focus."

"Bullshit! You were constantly making me think of sex!"

"Nope. I did not. That was all you. I don't create the thoughts; I just nudge them in the right direction. You were already fantasizing about bending the young lady over; I just increased the frequency of the thought. She was harder to deal with. Entirely too focused on her mission. I caught her once with anger, and this morning her jealousy was easy to feed into, especially since she thought the mission was over. The only one who picked up on my chakra was your stupid dog."

"Keep talking, fucker," Ino thought. "I've almost got him. One more word and I should be sure."

"Don't worry little girl. I've been inside both your minds and I can tell you without any doubt, that as much as you like this mongrel, he likes you that much more. Ha-ha… not that it matters since you'll both be worm food a few hours from now."

"Shintenshin no jutsu."

Suddenly the fat man reappeared, stumbling around.

"What are you doing?" Kiba asked her.

"This body is hard to control. I'm not used to being so large. Plus I think he has a bladder problem. I feel like I'm going to piss my pants. Hurry up with your jutsu. This body is gross."

"Fine, fine. Relax yourself… and remember to get out of there."



"You really think I might forget? Like I might just not notice a deadly spinning ninja and his dog hurtling toward me? Or maybe you think I want to die in the body of a fat man, killed by the man I'm screwing? Yeah, that's how I want to go. I don't think I'd even get a spot on the memorial stone for that."

"Shut up please Ino. I'm trying to concentrate."

The fat ninja rolled his eyes and pouted his lips in a way that would have been completely adorable on Ino, but was merely comical on the bulbous frame of a balding middle aged man.

"Gatsuga!"

Kiba and Akamaru came spiraling into the enemy ninja. Ino released her jutsu just in time for the man's eyes to widen before his body slammed ruthlessly into a tree and his heart stopped beating.

"Are you alright? Ino! Are you okay? Did you make it?"

"I'm fine," an exasperated Ino called from the other side of the clearing. "I just hope Shino gets here soon so we can go home. We have a wedding to get to ya know."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Fortunately Shino made it to their camp about 20 minutes later; unfortunately he had a guest with him, one that Kiba was all too familiar with.

"Holy moley! You're a ninja? Boy, Konoha must be hard up; they'll let anyone be a ninja. If a dirty perv like you can be a ninja then I bet the standards aren't very high. I could prolly even be one, right mister?"

Kiba grimaced, what the hell was Shino doing with this kid? "It's actually very difficult. I've been training for my whole life and it has never, at any point, been easy."

"Pfft…" the boy rolled his eyes. "Well if you've been training all your life and you still needed help from me back there I doubt you're very good."

Kiba bit back the string of filth that was about to pour out of his mouth just as he heard a low snort of amusement come from Shino's direction.

"Dude, did you just laugh? Are you kidding? I've spent all of my formative years just trying to get you to crack a smile, and this little bastard gets a laugh in five seconds? What gives man? And who the hell is he? What are you doing with him?"

"Our original contact in Furi-zu, the woman I've been staying with, is his mother. She is concerned that with the death of the daimyo she may be discovered. She fears for his life if this were to occur. As a token of Konoha's appreciation I told her that you and Ino would bring him home with you, where he can wait until the end of my mission. At which point I will bring his mother back as well and he can be returned to her. And for the record, I did not laugh."

"You're a damn liar!" Kiba crowed. "You totally laughed. Mind you it wasn't a real person's laugh, but as far as you're concerned it was a laugh."

"It was not," Shino deadpanned.

"It most certainly was. Just admit it. You laughed, at my expense no less. What a lousy teammate you are."

"My performance as your teammate has always been above satisfactory and continues to be so. I did not laugh."

"You did so! Own up man!"

"You are mistaken."

"Bullshit! You laughed!"

"I did not."

"Come on, Shino. Come clean. We all know you did it. You thought he was funny, and you laughed. It's not the end of the world. Just admit it."

"I'm guilty of no such thing."

"I can't believe you dude. Did you forget who you're talking to? I have ears like a dog! I heard you, you laughed."

Ino had come back to camp after nature had called her to the woods, somewhere around the time that Kiba had accused Shino of being a bad teammate and was thoroughly confused. Shino and Kiba stood there arguing, presumably over a laugh, while Akamaru stood attentively next to his master looking suspiciously like he could almost laugh himself, and oddest of all, a small boy stood there in the middle of all the commotion laughing hysterically. The childish bickering continued with no foreseeable end in sight, and Ino had had enough.

"Ahem," she cleared her throat. "What the hell is going on here?"

Four sets of eyes quickly shifted in her direction and suddenly it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. However, just as abruptly the silence was broken.

"The drunks a ninja too? Man, I guess I _WAS_ right, anyone can be a ninja."

This time a loud guffaw escaped from behind the high collar of Shino's jacket, as Kiba laughed freely.

"The drunk? Who are you talking about? Who is he talking about? And who are you? Who is he?" Ino tried to ask her cohorts without being rude to the boy.

"He's our Furi-zu contact's son, who we have to escort back to Konoha," Kiba answered. "And I'm pretty sure you're the drunk."

XoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoX

A/N: Sorry for the short lousy chapter, I'm trying to get back into this story, it's just really hard, I'm not sure where I'm taking it, and I figured getting something down on paper (or computer screen as it were) was the first step.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated this in forever, but I'm going to work on this one for a while now. Hopefully until it's finished even, my other story "All The Difference," which you should check out if you haven't read it already…hint hint… will be put on hold until I finish this one because I feel like I've neglected it for far too long. Also, I know this chapter is short, but I'm just trying to get back in the swing of things and it's still a little difficult, I apologize if this isn't in the same tone as the other chapters but I'm trying to find that voice again… really.

Chapter 15

The entire way back from Furi-zu Kiba cursed his rotten luck; not only was Ino being distant toward him (she wouldn't even hold his hand, let alone kiss him) without giving him any kind of reason, and every time he tried to get near her to work it out that little brat, Okkuu Gaki to his family and friends, was in his face telling him what a lousy ninja he was and keeping him from Ino's side. Once Ino had found out "the drunk" was her and the kid thought she was an alcoholic mess, she'd explained her family jutsu to him (after whacking Kiba over the head for such an outlandish explanation – even if it was one the two of them had decided on together) and even performed a demonstration to prove she was a damn fine kunoichi. Since then little Gaki had been smitten by the beautiful blonde; hanging on her every word and never leaving her side.

Ino found this new development delightful in every way and basked in all the attention the little turd was lavishing on her. It seemed that as long as a girl was pretty and not a drunk his mother would certainly approve and Gaki was ready to make Ino his wife, something that she thought was completely adorable. Kiba on the other hand, wanted to kick him as hard as his chakra enhanced legs could manage and see just how far the little bastard could fly, and if he went so far that they never managed to find him again that would just be icing on the cake. While Gaki was infatuated with his "golden goddess," as he was fond of calling her, it seemed this love did not extend to his male traveling companion, whom the boy seemed to view as his competition. It probably hadn't helped the situation that after a particularly harrowing day with the punk they had stopped to take a bath in a creek, Kiba and Gaki had gone down together while Ino kept watch and upon seeing the young boy naked Kiba had explained that Ino would never like him. Gaki had stared at Kiba with wide eyes and demanded to know why, to which Kiba replied that his penis was far too small for Ino, which he would know since she had already tried out his. Gaki hadn't believed it and actually asked his lady love about it personally. Ino had actually admitted it to the kid, but had then scolded Kiba for the event. Honestly Kiba couldn't see what the big deal was; the kid was at least eleven years old, he should know by now that if he wanted a hot girl like Ino he was going to need a bigger package. Sometimes he thought maybe he had been too hard on the kid, but then Gaki would go and do something to piss him off again and he would wish he'd actually been meaner. It was his opinion that the boy seemed to spend every waking moment pointing out all of Kiba's flaws and reminding Ino of his shortcomings. So now not only was he not spending his whole return trip having hot sex with his gorgeous teammate, and proving to her that she shouldn't drop him like a hot potato the second they got in the village, instead he was spending all of his time doing damage control so she wouldn't drop him before they even stepped foot in Konoha. The kid might be small but he was a giant cock block that Kiba couldn't wait to be rid of.

Coming across the border of Kusa, Kiba had never been as happy to see the dilapidated roofs of Odei as he was this particular trip. The poor trading town was barely an outpost and got very little traffic in the way of commerce. Host to hundreds of pick-pockets and derelicts, ninja very rarely went through the town, choosing instead to go around it and take a longer journey than face the conflicts that were sure to arise any time someone decided to steal from a highly trained weapon. However, passing through Odei meant that he, Ino, and Gaki would be in Konoha before nightfall, so Kiba had insisted by saying they needed to be home soon if they were going to make it out to Suna before Shikamaru's wedding. If fortune smiled upon him, in less than six hours Gaki would be in Tsunade's care, he'd be reacquainting Ino with his bedroom prowess, and the day could still be salvaged.

Apparently Kami was not in his corner this week though. No sooner than fifteen minutes after they entered the village Gaki was whining and being a genuine pain in the ass.

"Ino-chan," the boy's nasally high pitched voice pierced straight through Kiba's brain, not that anyone seemed to notice or care. "Can I have some dango? I'm really, really, really, really hungry and the food from the bazaar smells so good it's making my belly cry."

"No, have a ration bar," Kiba interrupted throwing the mentioned ration bar into the boy's hands before Ino could answer him. "The dango shop is nowhere near us, it's not in the bazaar with everything else and dragging you around with us has made us slower than shit as it is."

"Kiba! Watch your language!" Ino shrieked at him. "He's just a little boy."

_Little boy my ass, _Kiba thought as he could have sworn Gaki smirked at him evilly from his spot at Ino's elbow before opening his mouth to utter this little gem, "Since you're such a great ninja Kiba-sama couldn't Ino-chan and I just keep walking while you run over and get my dango? With your sense of smell you and Akamaru could find us in no time at all, couldn't you? And without me to slow you down it shouldn't be any trouble, right?"

He had to hand it to the devious little bastard; he definitely knew how to pull one over on the ladies, which was made even more obvious by Ino's response.

"He's right Kiba. You can just go get him the dango while we keep going and it won't even add any time to the trip."

"Are you kidding me?" Kiba expounded incredulously. "He doesn't even have any money and ration bars are fine for us, so why aren't they good enough for him? He doesn't even use chakra for crying out loud, we've been carrying him on our backs for most of this damn trip."

"But Ino-chan I hate ration bars," Gaki said sulkily and pulled on Ino's wrist. "They taste terrible and feel like cardboard in my mouth. I'm not a ninja so I'm not used to them."

"He's right Kiba, you know they don't taste good, just the other day you were complaining about them yourself."

"Ino, come on," Kiba tried to reason with the pretty kunoichi. "We're almost home were Tsunade will give him whatever his little heart desires, you know she's a sucker for a little kid. He can wait till then, can't he?"

"Kiba-sama I know dango is very expensive but I'm sure my mom will pay you back when Shino's mission is over, if she doesn't get caught and killed for helping you guys out," Gaki said, a tear coming to his eye as he sniffled out the last part.

"_You _have got to be kidding _me_, Inuzuka Kiba! This is about money! The damn dango can't be more than two dollars, and you're standing here arguing with a child about it. I'll pay for it if it's that such a big deal," Ino shouted and threw a five dollar bill at him.

"It's not about the money," he stammered at her back as he tried to explain, but Ino had already grabbed Gaki's hand and stomped off down the road, leaving him to get the troll his dango.

Why was this happening to him? All he wanted to do was to get home to Konoha and make love to his girl. Was that really so much to ask for? Wait a minute. Had he, Inuzuka Kiba, just thought "make love"? And thought of Ino as his girl? What was going on in his head? What was he thinking? Had that fat ninja messed up his brain?

Inuzuka Kiba did not "make love" to women. No, Inuzuka Kiba had sex, or fucked, screwed, or banged women, which he did quite well if he did say so himself (which of course he did), but he did not "make love" to them. And on top of that, he didn't do any of that to "his girl." In fact, he didn't have "a" girl, he had many, and none of them could actually be called "his." The women Inuzuka Kiba slept with were all free agents as far as he was concerned, well some of them might technically belong to other men, but it was safe to say that not a single one of them could be called "his." Inuzuka Kiba fucked around with many, many, many women, he did not "make love to his girl," and that was just the way it was and the way it had always been. So why was it that the only thing he wanted right now, in all the world, was to take "his" Ino (and Kami help whatever other man tried to say she wasn't his) home and make love to her all night long?

A/N: Please review, I know I hate it when writers withhold chapters for reviews and I will never do so, but it definitely makes me want to write faster when I get them. It's like encouragement for my pen, even when they're bad. So please, please, please send me a review.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Ino strolled along the streets of Odei with Gaki's arm linked in her own as they made their way through the center of town. While she was walking a little quicker than the boy would like, she still kept a pace well under the speed she was capable of on her own. Feeling a small tug on her arm she looked down to see Gaki smiling up at her, his eyes filled with adoration as he strutted alongside of her; proud as a peacock to have his "golden goddess" on his arm for all the world to see. She remembered the first time he'd called her that Kiba had shot water out his nose, laughing hysterically at the poor little kid's attempts to woo her. That was back when the two of them had actually gotten along though, and it hadn't lasted long. As Gaki's infatuation with her grew, the rivalry between the two males had also increased to absurd proportions. At this point it had gotten so ridiculous that she didn't want to even be in their presence when they were together, which was pretty much always.

The nature of their mission put them in constant contact with the boy, which in turn put him and Kiba in constant conflict. The two of them were incorrigible; like two male dogs in a pissing contest, only one was a little boy, a puppy as it were, and the other a full grown man who should have known better, she figured a comparison to a middle aged house dog who'd been neutered was a reasonable comparison here. Unfortunately, Ino was not a fire hydrant or a bitch in heat for them to fight over, and their antics were starting to wear on her lat nerve. He had thought their battle couldn't get any lower when Kiba had informed their young charge that she "only liked big dicks like mine," but she'd been proven wrong when Gaki, who was well aware of the Inuzuka's canine-like nose, had stolen a pair of her dirty panties out of her bag, wiped them all over himself, including even his face Kiba had told her later, and told the dog-nin she'd had sex with him. Kiba had been up in arms and angrier than Anko when Izumo had tricked her into going with him to the ballet, which only served to piss Ino off, as if she would ever stoop so low as to sleep with a child. She didn't know which one was worse. Kiba was older and should definitely have outgrown this type of behavior, but Gaki was a world class instigator and very adept at manipulation. In fact, she had promised he could be tested to see if he could mold chakra because if he could she was positive he would make an excellent shinobi one day. Right now though they were both pissing her the hell off and she wasn't sure either of them would live long enough to see him don a hitai-ite.

Ino knew damn well Kiba didn't care about the price of dango; he just didn't want Gaki to have anything he wanted. By refusing him the dango he was exerting his power over the boy and proving to him who was in control, which was exactly why Ino had sent him to get the stupid treat. Now everyone in their little party knew explicitly who was in charge of this operation.

While that was a reason she'd sent him away, it wasn't the main one. Ino had sent him away because she needed a breather; a chance to clear her thoughts and sort some things out. She wasn't sure about anything where the dog-nin was concerned. Well, that wasn't entirely true, she was sure she was feelings or some cruel cosmic joke. That fat ninja had been in her head messing with her mental state for who knew how long, and it would be just her luck that when she finally found love it wouldn't be real. How could she tell where her own feelings ended and the manipulations began? Would she be as desperately in love with Kiba as she was now for the rest of her life, forever and eternity, or was it temporary and next week she'd be back to hating him as much as she had at the mission's start? Just the thought of that made her sick; she didn't ever want to not love him. She needed to figure this stuff out, however it was impossible to do when he was around her. In his presence she found it difficult to even think, let alone sort out her emotions where he was involved, and so she'd come up with the only solution she could manage; she sent him away.

As far as Ino was concerned Kiba was the walking talking embodiment of sex. It oozed from his very pores. From his confident masculine strut (which Gaki had begun trying to emulate to comical results) and his cocky yet ever so endearing come-hither smirk, to the suggestive chocolate brown lust filled gazes he was constantly sending in her direction, everything the man did seemed designed to make her want to rip off his clothes and have her way with him. This was why he needed to be sent away, without his intoxicating sex appeal to seduce her she could get a better grip on what she actually felt for him.

Since leaving Furi-zu she'd started to push him away from her; remaining cool and distant to him and spurning his frequent advances. In part it was to see if she could, and also to see if he'd let her. There was no point in figuring out if her love for him was real if he didn't love her back in the first place. After dating both Sasuke and Naruto she'd had her fill of loving men who couldn't return the feeling. In Naruto's defense he had actually loved her, in fact he still did and they were great friends, he just wasn't _**in**_ love with her. The poor jinchuriki's heart had been given to Sakura long before Ino got there, hell long before he could even fathom the implications giving it away to her would have on his entire life, and even though he'd wanted desperately to give it to someone else, his heart was having none of it. The heart wants what it wants she'd heard numerous times, and Naruto was a prime example of a heart not listening in the slightest to the head it was attached to. So here she was trying to figure out if his roommate might actually reciprocate her feelings this time.

Ino wanted desperately to be sure, and this time _**before**_ she put her heart out on her sleeve just to have it smashed to pieces. Unfortunately, she was pretty sure it was too late. For better or worse, she was already in love with Inuzuka Kiba. Without him in her face to cloud her thoughts with visions of him taking her from behind in marathon sessions of hot kinky sex, she was able to conclude that if he wanted it, her heart was his for the taking. After going over and over the idea that her feelings may have been manufactured by the missing nin she'd decided that as long as he felt the same way it didn't matter. A baby wasn't any less of a baby if it had been born of a test tube, and as far as she was concerned love was love, no matter where it came from it felt the same. Besides that, back before they'd ever failed that mission she'd found him extremely sexy, and even fat ass had admitted he couldn't sway her from her mission with lusty thoughts. That had been back when he was alive and doing his damndest to fuck with their mission, so how much pull could he have now that he was dead?

Smiling brightly, happy to have come to a decision, Ino was so involved in her own thoughts that she managed to pull Gaki a whole three steps after he'd stopped walking before she noticed his loud whining and rapidly flapping arms.

"Ino-chan! Please stop! I have to pee," he moaned pathetically. "It's all of this water you've been making me drink. I have to pee sooooooooooo bad."

"Well now you have to wait for Kiba to get back with your dango before you can go, or you can pick up the pace and pee in the woods when we get out of the village," she explained.

"I can't wait that long! I'll pee my pants!" he shouted as he hopped back and forth from one foot to the other with his knees bent together.

"You will not, and if you do that is disgusting. You told me you wanted to be a shinobi; a shinobi would never wet himself, not even the genin. Kiba would never pee his pants," she scolded, throwing in that last bit just to get the boy going and take his mind off his bathroom problem.

"Ino-chan, puh-lease," he begged. "I really, really have to go, and Kiba will never stop making fun of me if I can't hold it."

"Well than I guess you better hold it, right? I can't take you in the girl's bathroom, you're too old. And I can't go in the men's room so you're going to have to wait for Kiba."

Gaki stared miserably at her, tears threatening to fall from his eyes, and then suddenly they were gone as an idea popped into his head and a glint of deviousness replaced the salty liquid.

"But Ino, Kiba will be so mad if we wait and he has to take me. We're supposed to be on the other side of town when he brings me my dango. If we slow him down he'll be pissed. I can go to the bathroom myself. I promise my mom even taught me how to work all that fancy plumbing and everything."

Despite herself Ino couldn't help laughing at the sarcastic little brat, he had a point though. Kiba _would_ be pissed, and this time it would be at her since she was the one who insisted he get the dango.

"Fine, but you better be quick about it," she said walking him to the public restroom and waiting outside the door for his departure. With Gaki in the bathroom and out of her hair for a minute, Ino let out a big sigh and thought happily about the time she and Kiba would get to spend together in Suna without any assassinations, missing nin, or bratty kids to distract them. Well they would if Kiba felt the same way about her as she did him anyway. She'd have to ask him about it when they got back to Konoha before they left or the sand village.

"What the fuck? Move it woman!"

Ino looked up to see Kiba bounding across roofs in what looked to be a hot pursuit.

"Someone's got the kid, I can smell his blood," he shouted back to her as she too leapt to the roof tops in search of their charge.

"Shit!" Ino charged after them praying to the gods that Gaki would be okay.

A/N: Thank you to SilentE and Oztan for the reviews. You are the reason I got this chapter out today. I hope everyone continues to like this and that I didn't lose all my readers after such a long hiatus. If you're lost please come back… and leave a review.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

For what seemed like the millionth time that day, Kiba cursed his shitty luck. The way he was going lately he was pretty sure that there couldn't be another person on the planet with shittier misfortune. How the hell had Ino lost the damn kid? Gaki was practically glued to her hip at every given moment, so maybe a genjutsu had been used he speculated. Then he quickly dismissed the idea completely, now at jonin level the pride of the Yamanaka clan could be trapped by nothing less than an Uchiha illusion. So what had happened?

He could smell the distinctly metallic tang of blood in the air. Wrapped within it was the salty musky scent of fear along with the unique smell of Gaki himself and Kiba hoped the kid was okay. As much as he'd turned out to be a royal pain in the ass he was still just a child and Kiba would never wish anything bad to happen to him. Despite the boy's shortcomings Kiba was as sure as Ino that if he tested positive for manipulating chakra he would one day make a great shinobi, something Kiba wanted him to live to see.

Suddenly the heavy smell of sweat filled Kiba's nostrils, indicating a spike in the boys' fear, at his side Akamaru growled angrily indicating he too had noticed it. A glance behind him revealed Ino to be catching up but with the boy's scent as it was he knew he had to move faster if he was going to make it in time to save the kid. Signaling to Akamaru to lead Ino to him and Gaki, Kiba quickly performed the seals for the Shikyaku no jutsu; transforming to his four legged state. Now in his practically animal form he could move at speeds no human could hope to match and he sped off after the boy's trail hoping he wouldn't be too late.

Arriving at their charge's location Kiba was glad to see Gaki was still alive, though he did look a bit worse for wear. Surprising him greatly, he found the boy's assailants wearing the forehead protectors of Kumogakure, not Iwa as he had expected. Fortunately this meant Shino's cover had not been blown as he'd feared with the discovery of Gaki's capture. On the other hand it meant that Kiba had no idea why he'd been captured at all. There was no apparent explanation for Kumo ninja to want anything to do with them. Gaki's face looked bruised, especially around the eyes, his nose was bloodied, and his lip swollen; indicating that they'd been beating him. His shirt had been torn off and several small cuts marred his underdeveloped chest muscles. The blood from the shallow slices on his torso was still running freely which meant they had just started this particular form of torment (otherwise it would have started to coagulate), which must have been when his fear had peaked. Clearly they meant to torture the boy for information, but what could he possibly know that Cloud would be interested in?

Kiba decided that didn't matter, Gaki was under the protection of Konohagakure and regardless of what he knew or didn't know Kumo would not lay another hand on the boy who was already terrified and in pain. He needed to get him out of there as soon as possible. As far as he could see, and smell, the Kumo contingent was composed of three members and Kiba hoped Ino and Akamaru would be arriving soon. The ninja standing closest to Gaki, holding a thin blade that undoubtedly was the one that had made all the cuts on his chest, had the strongest chakra signature of the group and Kiba identified him as the leader. He was short and stocky, solidly built, but Kiba doubted he spent much time training as his stomach had a bit of a paunch that hung over the waistline of his pants. His sandy blonde hair was receding over both his eyes but not over his nose, leaving a narrow peninsula of hair remaining on the top of his head. Dark sunglasses hid his eyes from view and his mouth scowled menacingly at the unwanted intruder.

A second Kumo nin stood behind Gaki in a fixed position obviously maintaining a jutsu that was preventing the boy from running away. He had a dark olive complexion and a thick bushy mustache designed to hide his practically nonexistent upper lip. His dark hair was cropped close to his head and he had black eyebrows reminiscent of Rock Lee's before he'd grown up and looked in a mirror. The third squad member was a small blonde female wearing a short purple skirt and midriff baring top. At first he'd thought her a twin of his partner but closer inspection revealed she was nothing but a poor man's version of his Ino. Her hair hung loose and limp, holding none of the shine Ino's was known for. Her eyes were a dull brown without a hint of the sparkle in Ino's baby blues, and where the Yamanaka's smile was bright and captivating (her best feature in Kiba's opinion) this girl had more of a sneer which only served to exasperate her chipped and yellowing buck teeth. None in the three man squad had chakra stores higher than chunin level, and Kiba was sure in a fight he could take out all three. However, they were in possession of Gaki and he'd have to be far more careful in battle not to let them hurt him or hurt him himself and just fight them off until his backup arrived.

"Give me the kid back now and I promise not to kick the shit out of you and kill you," Kiba demanded, deciding to try a more diplomatic approach to Gaki's retrieval. Originally, on his way over, he'd wanted to just gatsuga his way in and hope for the best, but he'd changed his mind after seeing the boy. Gaki had been banged up pretty bad and he might not be nimble enough in that condition to get himself out of the way. Even with all the enemies dead their mission would be a big fat "FAIL" if he killed their client.

"Pfft, you can't be serious mate," the blond leader, and the one closest to Gaki, responded cockily with a grin on his face. "We out number you three to one; you don't stand a chance."

Kiba grinned right back at the man, "Well _**mate **_you can't say I didn't give you a fair shot at getting out of this alive. Just remember it was you who threw it away and made this get ugly."

"Taicho," the ugly mustached man spoke in a strained voice, indicating to Kiba he was starting to feel the stress of holding his jutsu for so long. "I can feel his teammate only about 2 miles away and gaining pretty quickly."

"And just what about that is worrying you Norio?" the homely female scorned. "The kunoichi is useless and stupid. It's obvious she cares too much about her appearance and looking good to actually be a strong ninja. I can't believe Konoha would even let her on any missions, let alone one of such importance."

"Hehe, I can think of quite a few good reasons to put her on missions," the Cloud captain sneered disturbingly. "I bet she's fun to have around camp; keeps the morale up right?"

Inside Kiba was fuming about the way they were talking about Ino. Nobody was allowed to talk badly about an Inuzuka's mate, least of all these worthless no-name shinobi in front of him. He wanted to bite off their heads and rip off their arms to beat them with the bloody stumps, but if they all thought of Ino as inconsequential it could only work in their favor. So outwardly Kiba smirked knowingly at the enemy squad captain and winked, drawing out the conversation to give her and Akamaru time to get there.

"You have no idea just how entertaining she can be. Don't be mean though just because you're jealous that my partner's so much better looking than your own. Although I'd scowl too if I had to wake up next to _**that**_ every morning," he said, gesturing to their female teammate.

Kiba could feel Akamaru in his mind and knew he and Ino were only less than a mile away, which should take them less than five minutes to cover. About to make his move, he was actually startled when a Japanese Sparrowhawk, with a wingspan over two and a half feet, came streaking down from the sky digging its wicked talons into the scowling kunoichi's face and pecking at her eyes. If the woman had been homely before, she would only be described as grotesque after this. If she'd been jealous of Ino before, now she'd never want to even look in a mirror again. Assuming she could actually look in one again, it was doubtful though, Kiba thought, that bird was certainly doing a number on her. It took a few minutes for Kiba to figure out why a bird would attack his enemy, and then he realized his backup had arrived.

A/N: Thank you to Sir Greatness, oztan, silentE, and Sakura Shidou for the reviews and for sticking around for such a long time. I know it was an eternity before I began updating this again and I am so grateful to all of you who managed to remain interested in it. Thanks for reading! And please leave a review if you feel so inclined.


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